Come Crashing
by Anahhzp
Summary: In which their attempt to scape Sanguinem didn't turn out the same way. [mikayuu, vamp!yuu, still vamp!mika, there is a bit of gore, includes what I like to call vampire!smut, which isn't actual smut, so don't flip 'cause it ain't explicit; I put it as romance and angst, but the angst isn't that hardcore (I think) and it has actual plot after a few chapters] Cross-posted on AO3
1. Dead Hearts - Doomed

Yuuichirou stood frozen in place.

Just a few seconds prior the kids from the Hyakuya orphanage had been running towards the exit, towards their salvation. Yuu and Mika were supposed to distract the noble vampire while they ran for their lives, but before they could even move, Ferid had already passed by them, so fast that they couldn't even see his movements.

But they saw it when the vampire attacked the kids, slashing, cutting, ripping, while the blood was spilled and the drops fell on the ground like a scarlet rain.

Ferid's movements were as deadly as they were gracious, barely making a sound, so the only noises filling the hall were the pitter patter of blood and the thud of the bodies and limbs hitting lifelessly on the floor.

"Yuu-chan… Give me that gun."

Yuu was dragged out of his trance and turned around to face Mika, not really comprehending his words right away. "Uh?"

Mika started towards him. "I'll attract his attention at the cost of my life. You at least have to escape."

The words finally sank and Yuu's eyes widened. "Eh? No way, you idiot. I won't let you do that!" Mika was the only one still alive, he wouldn't let him just run for his death, not Mika…

But before Yuu could process what was happening, Mika took the gun from his hand. "Remember, Yuu-chan… We are all part of the same family," and then he sprinted towards the vampire.

Yuu yelled at him in protest, but shock paralyzed him. He watched in horror as the Noble's hand made its way through the blond's chest, ripping flesh and cloth and spilling blood all around him, staining his shirt and the white tiled floor.

The impact and the pain caused Mika to lose his grip on the gun, dropping it. As he stumbled on his feet, curling on himself – a vain attempt to minimize the pain, - Ferid calmly lowered himself down to pick up the gun.

"Were you going to try to shoot me too? Honestly, I expected a little bit more from you, Mikaela-kun. Unless your intentions were to make some sort of distraction, that is. After all, these bullets aren't able to kill a vampire. Humans, on the other hand…" Mika watched, hopelessly and stunned, as the vampire raised the gun, aiming at him.

That was what stirred Yuu into action. He ran as fast as he could, not exactly knowing what to do. _Should he tackle the vampire? Or push Mika to the ground?_ The answer came when he heard the shot. He didn't think, he just _jumped_.

And then everything seemed to be in slow motion. Mika's eyes widened as a mass of black hair appeared in front of him, inching closer and closer to the bullets route. Ferid's expression, that up till then was a sadistic one, morphed into shock.

The moment passed and Yuu fell flat on the ground, the only noise being the one of the impact, echoing through the wide and empty hall.

The bullet had hit his head.

Mika made a struggled noise and half kneeled half collapsed beside Yuu. Pain forgotten, Mika struggled with his hands for a moment, not knowing if he should reach or not for the ravenette. But the doubt didn't last long and he soon flung himself towards the boy, shaking him.

"Y-Yuu-chan?" He desperately called, tears running freely down his face.

Ferid, still not entirely over the shock, watched the scene with concern, brows knitted together, one hand on his face and the other – the one still holding the gun – hanging limply besides his body.

He wasn't supposed to harm Yuuichirou. Damn, he wasn't even aiming at anything vital on Mikaela, but he certainly wasn't expecting the sudden turn of events, and that's the result.

And then it hit him.

It was troublesome, yes, but he couldn't help the thrilling sensation of facing something that he had not foreseen, which was extremely rare these days. A smirk made its way back to his face, the concern twisting into excitement as he waited for the situation to unravel.

Meanwhile, Mika was still shaking Yuu and begging for him to wake up.

The pain was finally returning in full force, despite the adrenaline running through his body. Because of the blood loss – the blood still streaming down his chest through the wound, soaking his shirt in a vicious red – he was starting to feel light headed. His grip on the ravenette weakened and keeping on that kneeling position became a struggle by itself.

Mika slowly lowered down and laid his head on Yuu's chest, taking notice of the slow and faltering – yet still existing – beating of his heart. Amidst his hazy mind, this fact calmed down slightly the blond. Although, if he were on his right mind, he'd have known that despite that, Yuu'd never wake up again, for he was certainly already brain dead.

But Mika had more and more trouble forming coherent thought as time ticked by. He paid no mind to the guards that had entered at some point, and he barely noticed when they left and a petit vampire entered the room and had a somewhat violent _conversation_ with Ferid Bathory.

He did notice though when the pink haired vampire kneeled beside Yuu and held his wrist. Mika felt a sparkle of anger lit inside him. He wanted to snap at her and say that she wasn't allowed to _touch_ his Yuu-chan. But he felt way too weak, and instead he remained silent and listened to her saying, most likely to herself, "Still alive… somewhat."

Then she stood up and made her way towards Mika, finally approaching him. "Oi, human. Do you want to live? I can give you life. Eternal life."

 _Eternal life?_ Even in this state Mika understood her implications, and he promptly – although with some struggle – said, "I don't want that."

It's funny though. The prospect of becoming a blood-sucking monster wasn't even the worst part. It was living.

Why would he want to live when Yuu-chan was dying? When their entire family was dead? Dead because of none other than himself and his childish belief that it would be easy… no, _possible_ , to scape this place.

No, he didn't want to live. As the seconds passed by, death seemed more and more like a blessing.

But she didn't give up. "And what if I also save this boy… Yuuichirou?"

His eyes widened for a split second. _Save Yuu-chan?_ But he quickly shook off this thought. Turning Yuu wouldn't save him. "No," he said firmly, or as firmly as someone in the merge of death could.

"I see," though by the way she said that didn't seem like she did, and her next words proved that right. "But I'm afraid that you have no choice."

And so, she pressed her lips together and a trail of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. She then sat down beside Mika and pulled him close – away from Yuu-chan, - but he had no strength to fight, so he just let himself be pulled.

And again, if he weren't in that sorry state, her next action would have shocked him more. The vampire pressed their lips together in a pseudo kiss and Mika felt himself swallowing something. _Her blood_ , his mind provided.

For a second, nothing happened. But it was like the calm before the storm, because not two seconds later an excruciating pain hit him and spread throughout his whole body, as if it was liquid fire running through his veins. The pain was worse than when Ferid's hand broke through his skin and flesh, crashing the bones in its way as it made a hole in his chest. It was worse even than the pain that he faintly remembers from when his body kissed the asphalt of the road when he was only five and his mother had pushed him out of their speeding car.

Suddenly, the room became too bright, the agony blinding him. Everything was white, except for the black spots that appeared in his vision. And then, with a hint of surprise, he felt his body pressing against the hard floor, the cold bringing relief to his boiling skin. Except, that numbing sensation only lasted for a second.

All senses overwhelmed him, and amongst the cacophony that was his thoughts, he could hear a scream.

 _His scream_ , he noticed at last, before blissfully blacking out.

The first time that Mika woke up, he noticed that he was on the floor of a dimly lit room. That's it, that's all he could take from his surroundings. Somehow, the pain managed to get even worse, and as he screamed at the top of his lungs, he wondered how he still had voice.

For the next… _Hours? Days? –_ he had no idea – he would drift between being awake and asleep. He didn't stay awake for much long each time, but the pain was so bad that every second seemed like an eternity.

The already agonizing pain escalated mercilessly and, by the third – or was it fourth? – time he woke up, it seemed to reach its epitome, and then Mika wasn't just screaming, no, he was _begging_. Begging not for it to stop, but for his death.

At that, a few guards entered the room. Mika knew, though, that the guards hadn't attended his wishes, because as darkness embraced his clouded mind, it wasn't to a dreamless sleep.

He was back at the white hall, all the kids from the orphanage around him, alive, and Yuu-chan by his side. They were walking towards the exit, but when they reached the middle of the room, the image started to flicker, to change.

Mika was still standing in the same place than before, his clothes still spotless. But the same couldn't be said about the others: the kids were scattered around the room, all bloodied and lying on the floor, a puddle of their own blood surrounding them. Some of them had missing limbs, some had large gashes on their stomachs - blows that hadn't been deep enough to cut their torsos in two, but so deep that cut through their flesh and was able to expose their guts.

He heard a laugh and his head snapped to the direction it came from.

"Mikaela-kun, are you appreciating the display?"

He felt tears streaming down his face. "Shut up, you bastard! What have you done?!"

He woke up panting. The relief that once was provided by his slumber had now been taken away. Now the only thing that switched was the type of pain. Whether it was physical or mental didn't matter, he suffered all the same.

The next two nightmares that he had were almost identical to each other, but slightly different from the first one.

It started pretty much the same way: everyone alive, a flicker, and they were dead. But that's where the similarities ended. Instead of Ferid appearing, he would hear voices. It was the orphans, they were calling him, even though they were still all bloodied and lying on the ground.

"Help me!"

"It hurts!"

"I don't want to die!"

Mika would then waltz through the room, going from kid to kid, trying to tend their wounds, stop the bleeding, do _something_ , but it was all in vain.

And then, suddenly the blood leaking from their wounds would start streaming down like rivers. It'd start filling the room – no longer white, but pitch black, in a way that made him lose all senses of direction – and, in less than one minute, Mika would be drowning in it.

When he woke up from the third nightmare, he noticed that the pain finally started to subside, although it was still unbearable. But it was a relief nonetheless. Mika had started to think that the pain would never fade away and it would haunt him for all eternity.

And when darkness once more crept on him, he didn't break on a cold sweat, fearing in anticipation. No, as he started to lose consciousness, he had the feeling that it'd be the last time.

The dream once again started the same way, this time following just like the first one.

"Are you appreciating the display?"

"Shut up! What have you done?"

Once more Ferid's laugh echoed through the room. "Me?" He put one hand on his chest, what was certainly a fake display of innocence. "I haven't done anything." And then his sweet and overly dramatic tone became serious… cold. "You did."

Mika's eyes widened, and suddenly he felt… _sticky_. He looked down on himself. His clothes were splattered with blood, his hands were _soaked_ in it and he could feel a liquid trail leaking from his mouth.

He swallowed the lump on his throat, which might have been a terrible idea. Mixed with the saliva was a faint irony taste. Suddenly his throat felt dry, painfully so.

And then came the voices.

"Why did you do this, Mika-nii?"

"Nii-san, it hurts!"

"Mika-san, I thought you cared about us."

Mika raised his hands to his ears, trying to block the voices, but it was almost as if they were inside his head instead of around him, and it was probably true. Everything was spinning, it was too much, it was to-

"Oi!" his eyes snapped open. Everything went silent, blissfully so.

Mika turned around, facing Yuu. He was standing about five feet away from him, his clothes were spotless and there was a serene smile gracing his features. Mika practically ran towards him, towards his Yuu-chan, stopping only when they were at arm reach.

Yuu took one small step towards Mika, one hand rising to Mika's head, caressing his cheeks. "Mika."

But, despite his soft voice, his tender touches, his smile-

"I thought we were family."

-It broke him.

Mika took one desperate step back and looked down, down from Yuu-chan's deep emerald eyes to his exposed neck. There was blood streaming down from two punctuated marks, tinting his neck and soaking his shirt.

It hurt, not only because his family was hurt, but mostly because the blood – Yuu-chan's blood, - scarlet and shining under the bright white light, was _tantalizing_.

Mika wanted to lean closer, to smell it, to taste it, to _drink_ it-

He woke up with a gasp. The dream was gone and so was the pain that had been torturing him for who knows how long. But now he was feeling a different kind of pain, of ache.

His throat was dry, too dry, almost as if it was on fire. His hands instinctively moved to his neck, trying desperately to make the pain more bearable, but before he could start clawing himself, two guards entered the room and took him.

The whole walk was made in a daze. Mikaela both didn't care about where they were going and was in too much pain to pay attention, although he would easily prefer this pain over the previous one.

Mika only attempted to make the effort and look at his surroundings after the guards unceremoniously dropped him on the red carped floor. The room was wide and with a high headroom - just like the rest of the rooms of this place, apparently, - and was mostly empty, apart from a few decorations along the walls and a throne on the back wall, which was occupied by the petit, pink haired vampire that had given her blood to him. He could now faintly remember that she was, indeed, the queen, Krul Tepes.

"Hello, Mikaela."

Mika, still on four on the ground, panting, tried his best to take his attention from the burning on his throat, instead choosing to focus on anything else, which ended up being the manicured nails that Krul leisurely tapped on her throne.

Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap.

For a moment, Mika let himself be lost by the monotonous sound that a human ear wouldn't be able to register from this distance, but that he could hear just as clearly as if he was just beside it.

Krul had paused for just a couple of seconds before continuing. "You were out for eight hours, if you're wondering." Her voice unnerved him. He couldn't decide if it sounded friendly or amused, or maybe even a mixture of both, but considering who she was, it was most likely the second option, he decided.

"I wasn't." The short answer came out with great effort.

"Well then, we have more important things to be taken care of." Mika wasn't up for small talk, and apparently the same could be said about the queen, despite her demeanor.

But what Krul considered 'important' might not apply to Mika's point of view. Although, before the boy could even decide if he wanted to know about whatever Krul meant or if he simply didn't care, he noticed - or rather scented - something.

He had lost it in his inner struggle of redirecting his attention, and it was only when Krul's words broke his concentration that his brain registered the smell. A smell so sweet and so tempting that Mika was sure that he had never experienced such crave in his entire life, it was really a wonder how just then he smelled that.

But, as the sweetness invaded his nostrils, the already painful burning on his throat only got worse - way worse, - and so did the aching on his teeth. Well, not regular teeth, fangs, which Mika had already noticed but opted for ignoring, what could no longer be done, once they seemed to elongate and nip on his tongue with their needle like tips, all while a liquid that he suspect wasn't saliva filled his mouth with a somewhat bitter taste.

For a second, he let instinct take over him, jerking his head way faster than humanly possible towards the direction where the smell came from. That's when he saw the kid laying, unconscious, just a few steps behind him.

For a frightening moment, he felt the urge to pounce and attack him, do anything in order to drink what was sure to be as sweet as how it smelled.

The blood.

But the realization came - almost not quick enough but striking him like a lightening, - and he came crashing back down to reality.

His eyes widened in horror and he closed his hand into fists, clinging hard onto the fabric of his shorts. The bloodlust was then mixed with disgust - disgust for what he almost did and somehow still wanted to do. Mika tried to avoid the sight of the kid and stare at the ground instead, which he is ashamed to admit that he did with great effort.

If Krul had noticed his internal turmoil, she didn't show it, opting instead on elaborating what she had started saying, even though Mika already had some idea of what was so 'important'.

"So, Mika. Suck this human's blood. When you do, your cells will stop moving, and you'll transform into a complete vampire… with powers that transcend humans and an ageless body." As she spoke, his situation both started to feel more real and more ethereal, and he seemed to be taken in a state of stupor, loathing just what he had become and not getting over his crave. "Become one of us!"

These last words were enough to snap him out of it. "I… I won't. I don't want to turn into a _monster_." Mika practically spat these last words, throwing all his spite into them, even though he was still panting and sweat dripped down his face.

But the queen did not take the offense, she might actually have thought that funny. "You say that, but… Your whole body can't resist." Krul stood up from her throne and walked towards him, but Mika didn't raise his eyes from the spot on the carpet that he had been staring at this whole time. "It hurts, right? Your whole body, that is." _Not just the body_ , Mika bitterly thought. "Your insatiable thirst for blood…" She raised her hand and grabbed his chin, making him look at her, although the gesture wasn't exactly rough. "Just stop enduring it and give in… To your own desires."

Her words stirred more of a reaction in him than her gesture, but Mika slapped her hand away from him, confusing the vampire for a split second. "Shut up!" He snapped at her.

Krul quickly recomposed herself, though. "So, you want to die, then? Just like this?" There was mirth on her tone, but Mika was having none of that.

"It's better than becoming a vampire! Just kill me instead!"

"I see…" And her expression faltered, becoming less happy and, for the first time, more… concerned, almost pitiful even. "Well, I can't blame you… It's pretty boring living through the centuries. A wise choice, I guess? But still… You are different now. I changed you. Even if you starve yourself, you can't die, you will only become a violent, mindless demon." Even while glaring at her, he knew she wasn't lying.

Mika's eyes stung, and even though they were still dry, he felt like he would be crying because of any of the emotions that overtook him, be it anger, hopelessness or sadness. Although, above all of this, ironically, he mostly just felt hollow.

"Why- why would I want to live? Why when they are all d- dead?!" The words felt constrict when he spoke them, barely noticing that he even said that out loud.

When Krul approached him once again, he was taken aback by feeling her fingers softly caressing his cheeks in an affectionate way. "Shh, I know it must be hard, but it was also necessary. Besides, you're not actually alone." Once more Mika was surprised. Surprised by her tender, almost mother like tone. Mika had always believed that vampires didn't have any actual emotions, and to acknowledge all the concern that the queen had been directing him during this entire conversation as real was hard.

Doubts aside, the boy finally registered her words. But before he could ask anything, the hand left him as Krul stood up from the kneeling position that she had previously taken. She called out for a guard, asking "Is the other one awake yet?" The guard nodded and left the room once more.

As soon as the door was closed, a dead silence overtook the room while the queen patiently waited. With the lack of a distraction, Mika's mind started racing in a mad attempt to figure out Krul's words, struggling to work amidst the haze. But not one minute later, and with little to no progress, Mika's swirling thoughts came to a halt.

The voice was what he first registered, and it was some good ten seconds before the doors of the throne room went open again, allowing the noisy complaining to invade the room.

From the very second that his heightened hearing caught it, Mika knew exactly who it belonged to, but - moved by fear or by some shard of hope - he tried to shrug this off as some misunderstanding. But now that the voice was so close, it was so undeniably familiar that it hurt.

Mika couldn't help turning around to see it for himself, just so he could be sure if he had officially gone mad or if the impossible and the wrongness had just combined and taken form.

But as he caught sight of raven hair and emerald green eyes, Mika couldn't decide if his worse nightmares had become true or if, against all his morals, a selfish happiness was about to overwhelm him.

Regardless of his feelings, he was almost startled when, for the first time since Krul's blood made its way down his throat, he felt his eyes get wet and tears stream down his face.

Yuuichirou wasn't sure about what was happening. The last thing he remembered was the sound of gun being shot, a gun that was pointed on Mika. In an instinctive reaction, he was pretty sure that he had jumped - if he jumped over Mika, Ferid or in front of the damn bullet was a mystery.

A moment later he was waking up in a dark room, as if he had suddenly blacked out. He had no idea of what happened exactly, but in that moment it was the least of his concerns.

The room he was lying in was so dark that he could have easily mistaken that but unconsciousness, if it wasn't for the agonizing pain that he felt. His body was so hot that Yuu honestly thought that he was starting to melt. He couldn't even check if this was an accurate assumption or not, because, even though he could somewhat discern the hard ground on which he laid, he still felt slightly… numb.

The pain was so much and the whole situation was so damn confusing that Yuu soon started hyperventilating. He tried to move, but it only made things worse. Every attempt amplified the pain, and even though he still had the sensation of swirling around with random movements, he found that he had lost all senses of direction, and soon became nauseated.

He stopped moving altogether in hopes that it would make it better, but the damage had already been done. So he just shallowly breathed in and out for what felt like an eternity before his brain mercifully shut down.

The whole process was long and excruciating, the pain only getting worse and with he feeling more hopeless by the time. Yuu could somewhat recall some nightmares that he started having at some point. They were mostly repetitive but somehow getting worse each time.

In them, he would watch again and again Mika being shot and his family – yes, his _family_ – being murdered. Lots of limbs had been severed, many heads had been decapitated, several throats had been cut and a mass of stomachs had been slashed.

And liters of liters of blood had been spilt. There was so, but so much blood it didn't really seem to end. And it was also really weird. By the last dream, it was almost as if the blood was-

Yuuichirou shook his head. He didn't want to waste his time thinking about these nightmares at the moment, not when two blood suckers held him by each arm in a vice grip, leading him to who knows where.

Yuu screamed in protest and yelled at them demanding answers, such as where they were going and just what the heck had happened to him. But they didn't say a thing, of course – not that the lack of response discouraged the boy in any way.

There was also this slight discomfort on his throat, which only made him more pissed off. He wasn't actually paying much attention to it, but it was something that he couldn't completely shrug off, which was really annoying.

So he just kept struggling and generally being noisy even as they entered an even fancier room, only shutting down for a second when he was caught off guard being thrown on the floor with no warning or whatsoever.

Yuu quickly got into a sitting position and was already turning his head around, ready to glare at the offensive guards some more, but stopped mid movement when his eyes caught a mess of curly blond hair instead.

"Mika…?" Guards completely forgotten, Yuu just stared at the blond with his mouth agape and a lack of words to say. He couldn't believe it. Mika was here and very much alive, and also seemingly fine, even though his shirt still had a huge stain of dried blood.

But the reassurance that he felt by seeing the boy quickly faded away when he took notice of the blond's expression. It was a mix of emotions. Overall, he seemed shocked, his face contorted into horror, as if he had just seen a ghost. Although, he could still easily see the glint in his eyes, which could be hope, perhaps?

But what did call his attention the most were the few tears running down his face. Mika, who have always been so strong, crying? That concerned Yuu. "Mika... are you okay? What's the problem?"

Yuu raised his hand instinctively, but the other boy was too far from reach. So he lowered both his hand and gaze while pondering if he should move closer to him, but his thoughts were cut short when he heard a hiccup coming from the blond.

In the split second that it took Yuu to look up, Mika had already covered the distance between them, and the next thing that he knew was that the blond's shaky, but strong arms were circling him into a tight embrace.

Usually, when Mika was over him like that, Yuu would start complaining and telling him to get off - even if he hardly ever actually pushed him away, - but not in this case.

The shock from the sudden approach faded away and Yuu's features relaxed, a worried smile making its way to his face, and he hugged Mika back.

"Y- Yuu-chan."

Yuu moved his hand up and started caressing the blond's locks. "I'm here, don't worry."

Mika was a mess, and he needed Yuu to reassure him, and that's the only thing that he wanted to do at that moment. But questions started to flood on his head, and he had the feeling that Mika might know some of the answers. Although begrudgingly, Yuu spoke up. "Mika... do you know... what's happening?"

The boy stilled in his arms, and even if it only lasted for a split second, Yuu noticed. But then it passed and Mika hesitantly pulled back slightly, just enough to look at him in the eyes. His face looked pained.

"Yuu-chan... Didn't they tell you what's happening?"

Yuu slowly shook his head, now more than a bit concerned. "Mika, what is it?"

Mika bit his lip out of a nervous habit, but dropped the gesture almost immediately. Yuu saw a glimpse of something.

"When... when we were trying to scape... Ferid hurt me really bad and- and the bullet… it hit you. On the head." Yuu stilled. _On the head?_ He shouldn't be alive if it was true.

Mika moved his hand over Yuu's face, making his attention go back to the blond. He had a pained smile, as if he couldn't quite reach the mask of happiness and confidence that he, more times than not, wore.

"Yuu-chan... We were both d- dying. And they didn't want that." Yuu blinked. _They who? What could someone even do against death?_

He looked back and stared into Mika's eyes, blue and... slitted. Yuu stilled and Mika's smile faltered even more. Yuu pulled the hand that still rested on the back of the blond's head, and apprehensively reached the boy's face, moving it under his bangs. Mika flinched, but let Yuu do it nonetheless. Yuu moved his hand further and reached for his ear, always hidden by his fluffy hair, and that now was... pointed.

And he had already seen a glimpse of it on Mika but... _'We were both dying_ '. With all his kicking and screaming, and by being absorbed with the fact that Mika was alive, he might have missed it. So, he reached with his tongue to his teeth, just to feel that his canines were indeed way sharper than what they used to be.

Mika had told Yuu, more than once, that he would miss everything around him when he was set on something. _And then everything would come crashing back on him_.

He did notice that his senses were keener, but didn't pay much – or any - mind to that before. And that discomfort that he had been feeling since waking up? It turned into a painful burning sensation on his throat, which was so, so dry, as if he had swallowed sand. The pain hit him so hard and suddenly that he gasped.

"Yuu-chan!" Mika now held his face with both hands, his voice dripping with worry.

"So, are you two aware now of your predicament?" Mika's expression twisted into one of hatred that didn't fit him in the slight, and snapped towards a pink haired vampire that Yuu hadn't noticed up till then.

"Why did you have to do that?!" Yuu flinched at the sight of Mika yelling at the vampire, while baring his-... fangs.

The vampire sighed, but didn't seem to be that annoyed. "I thought we were already over this, Mika dear."

Yuu, starting to get pass the shock, looked pensively at Mika. Yuu had an idea of what passed though the blond's head. Yes, he hated the fact that they decided to, uh, _turn_ them against their will. But, if it was the only thing that would have saved Mika...

"Mika..." but the boy didn't deviate his gaze from the vampire, so Yuu said it again, more surely this time. "Mika, it's fine," and he pulled on the boy's sleeve slightly to get his attention, timidly smiling when the blond looked back at him, in a way to reassure the other.

"So you're willing to drink blood?" That caused both boys to look at her.

"I never said that!" Yuu tried to sound angry and disgusted, but his whole body protested at his words.

Once more the pink haired vampire sighed, putting her hand on her hips and throwing her head back with eyes closed, thinking. A moment later she dropped her hand back to her side, looking back down at them.

She raised one of her hands, nails sharp like claws, and slashed on her own wrist. The blood started flowing almost immediately, pooling mockingly on her wrist, with a single drop falling. The two boys stared wide eyed as it slowly descended, right before splattering on the ground as silently as a bomb. Mika took a sharp intake of breath and Yuu gulped. "Would you rather drink mine, then? I'm not human." Her voice was sweet and luring, not unlike a siren's song.

Both boys stilled for a second before quickly glancing at each other. The pain was too strong and it was starting to get the best of them, they were barely keeping themselves together by then.

The pink haired vampire took their silence as a yes and moved closer to them, offering one arm to each, in a way that embraced both. They refused to look at each other while they shakily reached for her arms and bit, guiltily feeling the sweet flow of blood invading their mouths, but feeling the ecstasy of having their thirst being quenched by it.

"Ha."

She sounded relieved.

"That's right. Drink my blood. From now on, you two can't leave my side. You are mine now, my loyal servants… for all eternity."

They felt ashamed.


	2. Black - Devil Town

As they walked in silence and the mansion came into view in all its magnificence – extravagant and yet so intimidating, - Yuu could easily notice Mika flinching, before stalking closer to his side, brushing their shoulders together and lowering his head, staring at the ground.

Yuu instinctively took the blond's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Mika didn't take his gaze off of the ground, but Yuu could feel him relaxing slightly. The ravenette smiled to himself, knowing that at least he was there for Mika and that he would help him through whatever the future awaited.

 _About that…_ The smile vanished of his face and he gripped his free hand, also tightening slightly the hand holding Mika's on accident, causing the blond to finally look up at him, questioningly. Instead of looking back at the other boy, Yuu stared at the silver haired vampire's back, who was walking just a few feet ahead of them, his pace not unlike the one of a top model on a catwalk, and it just annoyed him all the way more.

If looks could kill, Ferid Bathory's head would've already exploded from the sheer hatred emanating from Yuu's stare alone. He finally spoke up. " _Why_ do we have to stay with- with _you_?"

Yes, he had asked this before and, yes, he had gotten his answer from the queen herself. He had even already _somewhat_ resigned himself about his predicament, but seeing Mika in so much distress caused his hate and stubbornness to come back in full force.

He stopped walking and so did the other two. Mika looked at him with concern. Ferid turned around slowly, a smirk clear on his face. _How can someone be so annoyingly…_ cheerful?

"Oh, I thought this had been already explained, but ok," Ferid shrugged, while Yuu still stared at him without moving an inch. "Well, the queen is a very busy person, and probably because I was already involved in the problem," he then held one hand up to the side of his mouth, covering it as in a lame gesture of secrecy, "you see, what she did was something very wrong and that she would rather keep as a secret," and he dropped the hand and went back to full joyfulness, "so she picked me to babysit the two of you for now!"

Yuu groaned in frustation, this answer being far from what he expected this confrontation to go. But Ferid went back to his marry way, completely unfazed and practically skipping on his way.

He then turned around to face Mika, ready to rant some about how irritating the noble was, but he completely forgot about it when he noticed the blond's distant expression and furrowed brows. He was concerned at first, but soon relaxed when he realized that he was just deep in thought.

"Hey, Mika…"

"Uh?" The boy turned to face Yuu, still somewhat absently.

"You were spacing out just now," Yuu pointed out.

"Oh," he raised the hand that previously held Yuu's to rub the back of his head, finally seeming to snap out, "I was just thinking about what Ferid had said-"

"Oh, don't waste your time thinking about this stupid idiot", Yuu snapped, annoyed once again.

"What?" Mika asked confused, but realization finally deemed on him. "Oh, no, I wasn't thinking about the babysitting part, I was wondering about what he had said before, about what Krul had done to us being wrong."

Then it was Yuu's turn to be confused. "What do-"

"You two, aren't you coming?" They heard Ferid asking in the most annoying singsong voice, already far away down the path.

Yuu groaned once more, pondering if he should just say 'no' and turn around, but Mika just sighed and took the ravenette's hand once more, surprising him. "Let's go, Yuu-chan. We better follow him."

And Yuu let himself be led by the blond, who had already went down this same path tons of times before.

The moment Mika passed through the doorstep, all the memories of his previous trips to this mansion came rushing back to him, all the time that he willingly came down this path and made his extra blood donation on his own free will. No, he did not do this for free, and he had a clear goal set in mind, but he couldn't help being ashamed of all the times that he had given his blood to the Noble and of the unwanted pleasure that he felt in the process, which felt absurdly intimate and just plain _wrong_.

But before he could go even further into these poisoning thoughts, Yuu-chan's 'wow' of amazement caught his attention. He was confused for a second, but then it hit him. _Oh, right_. All his memories tainted his view of this place, so he forgot for a moment how _impressive_ the mansion actually was.

Everything was so lavish and finely decorated, every detail - from the intricate tapestries to the renaissance paintings on the walls - was extravagant and expensive.

Mika had expressed a similar reaction when he had first come to the mansion, being it the first time that he had ever seem something so luxurious in his life, even before the virus had been spread and they had been taken to the filthy part of the underground city, in which the vampires kept the livestock.

"You can appreciate the place all you want later, as you're going to be staying here for a while." Ferid probably didn't meant much with these specifics words, but it started to fill Mika with a sense of dread. "But for now, I think you two might need a bath."

That, on the other hand, suddenly made Mika self-conscious of his current state. He felt sticky with sweat, his hair was a huge mess and completely dirty, and a dried pool of blood still stained his not-so-much white shirt. A look on Yuu-chan made him realize that the other boy was in a similar state, with the difference that only some blood coated his shirt – probably from Mika lying on top of him – and more of the red liquid covered his black hair to add to the mess.

"Well then, follow me." With a bit of apprehension, Mika did as the silver haired vampire had said, figuring that Ferid wouldn't be up to anything else for now, and also because he just really needed that bath. He looked back to be sure that Yuu was also following them, which he did after a moment of holding his shirt and staring at it as if it was its own fault to be dirty.

 _He looks just so cute sometimes._

Ferid lead them down the hall and into a bedroom close to the far end, on the right side. It was fairly big and just as luxurious as the rest of the house, although not as extravagant as other rooms, probably being some sort of guest room. It had twin beds and, surprisingly – or not so much actually – there was also a bathroom connected.

The bathroom was also quite big, but that's not what caught Mika's attention. No, it was the _huge_ , round, bathtub on the corner. Mika kept staring at it, probably gapping, while Ferid opened the tap to fill it, right before turning and leaving the bathroom, just as Yuu arrived, glancing up at him as he passed through the doorstep.

"Hey, what are you lo- wow look the _size_ of this bathtub!" His eyes might as well have been sparkling as he practically vibrated in excitement.

"Here," both of them looked back as Ferid entered the room once more, putting two white towels over the sink. "I will look for some shirts for you, tomorrow we find more suitable clothes. Have fun with your bath!" That said, he left the room and closed the door, leaving both of them alone.

They glanced at each other, a blush creeping its way to their cheeks just by the thought of bathing together. Mika started to turn around, going towards the door. "Uh, you can go first, I'll just w-" he started to say, but Yuu was quick to cut him off.

"What? No way, look at that tub, it more than big enough to two of each of us, I'm not going to make you wait outside!"

Mika blinked at Yuu's reasoning, but felt himself slowly nodding nonetheless. "Uh, ok."

Stripping down his clothes and getting into the tub was somewhat awkward, while both avoided looking at the other. It was so awkward, in fact, that Mika decided to look around the room in search of a distraction, and that's when he noticed a shelf filled with bottles and flasks, one in specific catching his attention.

"Hey, do you think it's bath salt?" He said while pointing a bottle containing what looked like pink sand.

Yuu immediately perked at that, and he grabbed the bottle, analyzing it for no longer than two seconds before saying, "Let's find out!" And he put on the water what was probably way more than necessary.

Mika just stared at him while he put the bottle back to the shelf. "Seriously?" Yuu simply shrugged.

But after a minute and splashing some water, they were proved right when they were rewarded with way too many bubbles, not that they were complaining. Actually, they even started playing like little kids, splashing water at each other and on the floor. It was pretty stupid and Yuu bit his tongue once, but they were still perfectly fine with it.

And as Yuu-chan splashed more water at him, Mika raised both hands in a peace gesture. "Ok, ok, you win, Yuu-chan", he said amidst giggles while opening his eyes, which had been closed to avoid the water. "Now come here, let me wash your hair."

The ravenette complied while he scanned through the bottles to find a shampoo. After finding the right bottle, he poured some of the contents on his hand and started rubbing the boy's hair, all while humming a song that he used to sing to the kids.

 _Oh, the kids._

"Mika, are you ok?"

"Uh?" The blond came back to reality and went back on washing Yuu's hair. He had apparently stopped for a moment, and that's probably what caught Yuu's attention. "It's nothing."

But the ravenette just turned around and grabbed both of his still raised hands. "No, it's definitely something. Mika, after everything, are you still trying to keep stuff from me? You don't have to carry all this burden alone, I can help you. So please, just me with this!" His voice had an edge of exasperation, and his eyes were pleading.

His heart skipped a beat. "Y- Yuu-chan! It's- It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that, eh, I don't you to worry about this-"

"You idiot. You keep worrying about everything and everyone, but who will worry about _you_?" He flinches at that. "Mika, you're not perfect, you can't do this alone, and you don't have to." Yuu's tone then became softer, although still dripping with concern. "So _please_ , just tell me what's bothering you."

Mika then looked down to the side, trying to avoid Yuu's gaze. He had always kept all the burden to himself, never wanting to worry the others or putting them in danger. And even though Yuu-chan had confronted him countless times before on this precise matter, this time Mika didn't have the mental strength to dismiss his concerns.

"I… I was thinking about the orphans."

Yuu's grip on his hands softened. "See? Was it so hard to say?"

Mika glanced at him for a couple of seconds before going back staring at the water, still half filled with bubbles. One more bubble popped.

"If… if I had been able to protect them, or if we hadn't even _left_ our house then-"

Yuu dropped his hands, instead embracing him in a side hug, which caused the blond to lose his trail of thought. Yuu never initiated this sort of physical contact. "Mika, it was not your fault. If anything, it was clearly that damn idiot's with whom we are unfortunately stuck with." He pulled back and Mika looked at him. His expression was comforting, even if his brows were still furrowed. "So just promise me that you will stop blaming yourself for something that was never your fault."

They finished washing themselves mostly in silence, and then got off the tub to grab the towels. And even though they had dried themselves, Mika's feet were still wet when he was opening the door to leave the bathroom – they had somehow managed to wet the entire floor during their bath.

But then he turned around for a moment, just to realize that Yuu was staring intently at the mirror. "Yuu-chan, is there something wrong?"

Yuu turned his head in his direction. "Uh? Oh, I was just looking, you know… _these,_ " he said while pointing at his pointed ears. But before Mika could say anything, he just turned around and left the bathroom ahead of him, leaving mini water poodles on the wooden floor. Mika followed him to the bedroom without a word.

Even though the room was wide, it wasn't so large in width, so each of the twin beds was put beside opposite walls. Yuu had chosen the one on the left, so he picked the other one. Over the bed was a dress shirt, which was quite big for him and probably covered his thighs. _It would do for a pajama_.

"Oi, Mika, do vampires even sleep?" Yuu asked as Mika put on the shirt. He stilled for a moment.

"I think I read once that it's not necessary, but I don't think that they would even have beds if they _couldn't._ " Yuu nodded.

Thinking about that, it made sense them wanting to sleep even if it was unnecessary. Mika couldn't even phantom having to live for all eternity in a constant stated of consciousness. The thought made him shiver.

Mika pulled the covers and went to turn off the light, being momentarily surprised by his new night vision, and then went back to his bed, with Yuu doing the same.

"Goodnight, Yuu-chan", even as he said that he was pretty sure that it was still morning, probably around 10am, but he paid no mind to that.

"Goodnight, Mika." Yuu replied.

And he closed his eyes.

He really did think that, as soon as he closed his eyes, darkness would creep on him and take him to unconsciousness and that maybe, _just maybe_ , when he woke up, he would realize that it was just a bad dream and everyone would be very much alive and well.

But he was proved wrong when a few minutes had already passed and he was still pretty damn awake, maybe because he couldn't even sleep after all and would have to deal with it for the rest of his now painfully long life, or because Yuu-chan just wouldn't stop turning to and fro on his bed, making Mika unable to concentrate on anything else.

He was about to address the other boy when he just suddenly stopped and loudly groaned. Mika then sat up, eyes half lidded – not because he was tired, though – and asked, "Is there something wrong, Yuu-chan?" He was half concerned and half expecting a headache out of this.

"It's so annoying!"

He stares nonchalantly. "What's annoying?"

"The eyes!" Yuu said as if it's the most obvious thing. Mika blinked and raised an eyebrow.

"Yuu-chan, you got to be a bit more specific."

Yuu made a frustrated noise. "It's just that- it barely makes a difference if the lights are on or not, I can still see every freaking thing!" He said-yelled while gesturing wildly with his hands.

Mika sighed. "Then just close your eyes," he said simply.

But the answer didn't seem to satisfy the ravenette. "It's not just that…" He murmured, but Mika had no trouble understanding him.

"Then what is it?" He then said in a more tender tone, starting to realize the other boy's problem.

Yuu sighed. "It's just- ugh! Everything is wrong. Not just, uh, _me_ , but… the room too! It's cool and stuff, but it just feels too wide, too fancy and comfy… It's not really how it was supposed to be." Then he just rolled around and laid with his back on him, staring at the wall.

Mika felt a pang on his heart. He rarely saw Yuu-chan looking this defeated, he was always strong and ranting about the most absurd things, not letting the problems get to him. And even just a little while before, while Mika had his own little breakdown, Yuu-chan was there to try to bring some sense to him. So seeing him this hopelessly now felt way too wrong.

He had to fix this.

Mika stood up and headed to Yuu's bed, only being acknowledged by the other when he raised the sheets and climbed on the bed beside him. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Didn't you say it was too wide and comfy? Well, I'm making this all crumpled up."

"Idiot, it's too narrow for both of us!"

"But Yuu-chan, you're so skinny!" A smile made its way to Mika's lips as he thought that anything was worth it if he could see that adorable blush on Yuu-chan's cheeks.

But as seconds stretched into minutes and they still hadn't found a confortable position, Mika started to rethink his decision. "Uh, I think you might be right, maybe I should…" But before Mika could stand up and go back to his own bed, Yuu stopped him.

"Wait a second, let me just…" And he held Mika and changed their positions so they were spooning, with Yuu being the big spoon. Mika felt his cheeks heating up, but he soon relaxed as he felt the comfort in being embraced by Yuu-chan and having their legs tangled together.

It was almost automatic and felt so right. All the distress, worry and self-loathing that Mika had been feeling for the last couple of hours started to drip away, being replaced by a feeling of belonging – even if only for a little while.

"Goodnight, Mika," Yuu said once more.

"Goodnight, Yuu-chan," and as he said these words this time, he could feel his consciousness fading away.

When Yuu woke up, they were still in the same position, with Mika still sound asleep in his arm. Actually, Mika was extremely still, worryingly so. His breathing was shallow and the beats of his heart were too far in between, and Yuu thought that there was something wrong at first, but then he realized that the blond's heart rate was just as slow as his own.

 _Uh… It might be just a- a vampire thing then._

Mika was turned to the other side, so Yuu couldn't see his face, being faced with a mass of blond, curly hair instead. After a moment of hesitation, Yuu brought his hand – the one that wasn't circling the blond – to Mika's hair, fiddling with his locks.

Only a few minutes passed before Mika stirred in his arms. Yuu retracted both of his hands as the other boy turned around, becoming face to face with him. "Morning," Mika said in a somewhat groggy voice.

"Morning," Yuu replied, right before knitting his brows together. "Talking about morning… What time is it exactly?"

Mika furrowed his brows as well. "I don't know… But I think I've seen a room that had this tall, wooden clock with some details in gold and stuff," Mika said, half distracted and dragging on the words.

"So you saw a fancy clock?" Yuu resumed.

Mika nodded. "Yeah… I think I'm going to check it. Hold on." And so he stood up slowly, with Yuu sitting up on the bed as he did so, watching as the blond left the room. Yuu then sighed and stood up, going to the bathroom, which was still filled with a fair amount of water poodles.

The ravenette went to the sink and looked at himself on the mirror that hang over it. His now dry hair was a total mess, sticking to all possible directions. With a groan, he started brushing it with his fingers, doing a fairly good job, except for one specific strand of hair that just wouldn't go down. After fighting with it for a while, he eventually gave up, being done with his hair.

His attention then moved to his face, and he flinched when he saw the reflection of his own eyes, still green, but now slitted. Then he quickly turned his gaze towards his ears, which stuck out of his somewhat combed hair. He hesitantly raised his hand, touching with his finger the pointed tip of his ear. It felt weird.

And then his eyes went to his mouth. But, rather then opening it, he reached with his tongue to his teeth, accidently getting it pricked by the keen tip. He winced with the sharp pain and stuck his tongue out to look at the tiny hole that had already started to heal.

Pain aside, Yuu recoiled his tongue and opened his mouth wide, looking at the fangs themselves. The two on the bottom roll were visibly sharper than a human's canines, even if they were fairly smaller than the ones on the top roll, even if these were retracted in the moment.

This was the inspection that he was about to do after their bath on the previous day, but had opted to leave it for another time for Mika's sake. Not that Yuu himself was ok with their situation, but he couldn't help feeling somewhat… curious. Well, maybe that wasn't the best way to describe it, but for a lack of better word… Anyway, Mika, on the other hand, was certainly drowning in too much self-loathing to relate with Yuu's curiosity. And Yuu was trying his best to somehow make the blond get over it, but he wasn't exactly good at th-

"AH! Get off me!" Yuu forgot everything as soon as he heard Mika's scream, clear as day.

The next think he knew, he was running, and in just a few seconds he found the blond. On the other side of the mansion. "Mika, what is it?!" He said as soon as he entered the room, only processing the situation after spilling these words.

Mika, stunned by his sudden entrance, looked at him wide eyed with his hands raised to his hair. By his side was Ferid, one hand halfway stretched towards the blond and the other holding a plastic bag, and a smirk stamped on his face.

"What's happening here?!" He was the first to break the silence, his words practically setting the others back into motion.

"Oh, nothing much, I was just greeting dear Mika!" Ferid said as he moved his hand to reach the other boy, but Mika slapped his hand away, right before lowering both hands and closing them into fists.

"I told you _not_ to touchmy hair!" And he started glaring at the taller vampire.

Yuu walked away from the doorway and to Mika's side, joining him at glaring at Ferid, who just seemed to ignore them.

"Anyway, I got some clothes for you!" He said while raising the plastic bag that he had been holding, before offering it to the two.

Mika hesitantly took the bag. He opened it slightly to peek inside, and Yuu noticed him stilling for a fraction of seconds before closing the bag again. "Thank you…" He murmured without looking at the silver haired vampire.

Then he took Yuu's hand and led them out of the room. But when they were passing by the doorway, Ferid called again. "Oh, and Mika-kun," and Mika stopped, even if visibly reluctant, "you two can take that off," the vampire said as he gently pulled his own red ribbon, as to illustrate what he was saying.

Yuu's hand instinctively moved to his neck, feeling the familiar material of the collar. The livestock collar. His eyes widened momentarily. He had grown so used to the collar that he had completely forgotten that he was even using it. But before he could muse more on the matter, Mika started pulling him once again towards their bedroom.

Once they got there, Mika closed the door behind them and went to his bed, turning the bag upside down and emptying its contents.

Yuu reached and picked up one white shorts. It was of a much finer material than the ones that they had as a livestock, and it was also shorter, ending in the middle of his thighs, as it seemed. Yuu turned to Mika, seeing how the other held and stared at a white button up coat with sleeves just long enough to reach the elbows, much similar to the uniform that they had seen some of the vampires using.

Yuu sighed and dropped the shorts on the bed, then proceeding to take the coat from Mika's hands, causing the other to look at him questioningly. "Look, there's also a black shirt," he said while picking up a button up, short sleeved shirt.

Mika looked at the new shirt, his brows still furrowed. Then Yuu's gaze lowered to his neck, where the blond's fingers gently pulled at the collar, as if it was giving him a choking sensation.

"Here, let me…" Yuu trailed off as he reached for the other's collar. Mika looked at him questioningly at first, but understanding became apparent on his features as soon as Yuu started to fight with the damn thing's clasp.

After a minute or so and some cursing, Yuu finally freed Mika from the brand, and tossed the collar on the bed. "There you go!" he said with a triumphant smile on his face.

Mika massaged his neck for a moment, his gaze – distant and pensive – on the tossed collar. "Thank you," and then he went to do the same for Yuu.

Yuu could feel Mika's soft and warm fingers brushing against his skin as he struggled with the mechanism, although for not as long as Yuu had. And as soon as the offensive thing was out of his neck, he could feel the relief washing over him.

"Thank you, Mika."

"No problem, Yuu-chan."

"Oh, by the way, what time is it?" Yuu asked as he turned to look at the blond.

Mika stilled, his face paling as he replied, "I don't know."

Half an hour or so later, already dressed – just the black shirt and shorts, they ignored the coat and belt – and still having no idea of the time, they decided to leave the room, just to have Ferid popping out of nowhere and start screaming "Look how cute you two look!" And then they thought it would be for the best to just stay inside their room.

Two days later, as soon as he woke up, Mika realized that the dull ache on his throat had turned into a painful burning sensation, and he knew what this meant, as well as the fact that Yuu-chan was going through something similar, even though neither would acknowledge that.

But they did leave the room anyway and, per usual, Ferid didn't take long to show up. And it only took him one look at them to know exactly what was going on. "Follow me, you two," and he lead them to the kitchen without saying a word. No jokes, no teasing.

Mika was almost glad for his mindful silence. _Almost_.

When they arrived at the kitchen, Yuu and Mika sat on the stools by the counter, while Ferid got around to get to the fridge. He retrieved two vials of blood and poured the contents on two glasses. The smell assaulted Mika's senses immediately, and he was almost lunging towards the glass when Ferid offered them to the two boys. But then a thought struck him and he stopped himself mid movement.

"Is it- is it human?" He asked uncertainly as Ferid positioned the glass in front of him. Yuu already had his glass in hand, ready to drink, Mika's question being the only thing to stop him.

In that moment, Ferid, who had been wearing a neutral expression this entire time, flashed a wide grin, with fangs and all, and said in a dizzyingly sweet tone, "Of course not!" And then he just turned around and left the room in a swift motion, leaving Mika gaping.

And _that's_ why Mika would _never_ let himself truly believe in any act of kindness coming from that crazy bastard: because _he_ was always the first one to remind him why he shouldn't be trusted.

Mika slowly turned around and faced Yuu, who seemed pretty much confused. The two stared at each other for a moment before Mika finally break the silence, "Was he being sarcastic?"

Yuu then shrugged and said, "I sure hope not." And then he did the last thing Mika would have approved him doing: he simply took the glass once more and turned it, drinking everything in one go. Yuu drank it in such a haste that some of the blood flooded and dripped from the corners of his mouth and down his chin, being licked clean as soon as the glass was empty.

And, for the second time in less than two freaking minutes, Mika was left gaping. Yuu then simply laid the glass back on the counter and _dared_ to look at Mika with an expression that clearly asked 'What?' in all its innocence.

Mika intently stared at Yuu for a while longer, just until he was sure that nothing was going to happen. Yuu's eyes remained an emerald color and nothing seemed to change. _Ferid wasn't lying then_.

The blond then mentally counted to ten while massaging his temples. He sighed. "Yuu-chan, sometimes you can be so… inconsequential."

"Eh?" He even looked a bit indignant right before turning his head to the opposite direction, avoiding looking at Mika. Mika just rolled his eyes, more than used to Yuu-chan's antics.

He then took his own glass, staring carefully at the scarlet liquid. It was almost hypnotizing, with the overwhelming smell that made it all the more tantalizing. He felt his fangs nip at his bottom lip and the venom start to drip. For a moment, he wondered just what monster he had become.

 _To crave such thing…_

But there was absolutely no avoiding. And, with a defeated sigh, he turned the glass, tasting the luscious flavor of the cupric substance that invaded all his senses and entered his system, blissfully quenching his thirst and subsiding his pain. He greedily drank each mouthful of blood, being nearly impossible to stop, and when the glass was empty – _too soon_ – he almost wished he had more.

He laid the empty glass on the counter, staring at it for a moment, before seeing something from the corner of his eye. He then turned around just to notice that Yuu-chan had been staring at him this whole time. It was his time to ask, "What?"

Yuu flinched and immediately turned a cute shade of red – a completely different shade from the blood; it was sweet, innocent, far from being sinful – and turned back around. "N- nothing, you idiot!"

Mika felt a smile tugging on his lips – crimson and stained with blood.

Even if they were all too aware of how painful it was to go even one day too long without blood, it didn't stop them from avoiding it until they couldn't anymore. And it was just one week later that they learned their lesson.

That day when he woke up, Mika could practically smell oh so sweet blood permeating the entire mansion, and he could swear he could hear the faint sound of beating hearts.

 _That's it, it's been gone way too far_. One look on Yuu-chan – who was restless on his bed – told him just how disturbed the boy really was. Without dwelling further on the matter, he just stood up, got dressed and headed to the kitchen, Yuu in tow.

As he got closer, the smell only seemed to get stronger and the quick beating of a human's heart louder, and it was driving Mika insane. It was only when he turned the corner to enter the kitchen that he saw it, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

Inside the kitchen were two girls eating by the table. Mika took a sharp intake of breath – which only caused him to inhale more of that honey smell. Through the little clarity of mind that he still possessed, he wondered how funny it was that, even though he had been one of these kids to visit the Noble's mansion himself, he had completely forgotten about them.

Thinking about that, he hadn't seen a single human on the mansion since their arrival, which probably meant that Ferid had forbidden their visits for the sake of the two of them. But it seemed that the pervert couldn't stay that long away from his weird fetishes.

Yuu-chan, who had been behind him, went to his side, freezing as well once he saw the girls. By then, the two humans seemed to notice them, and not just that. If the way that they flinched was anything to go by, they had also noticed that Yuu and Mika were not human, while having their heartbeats speeding up as fear stroke them _like it_ _should_.

Mika could feel his fangs elongate and start to drip with venom. He took one step towards them and the delicious smell that emanated from them. But then he felt a hand gripping tightly on his wrist, preventing his progress. His first reaction was to try to free himself, but the grip only got stronger. He was getting desperate, he just needed to reach them, his prey, to-

"Mika!" He froze, Yuu-chan's voice momentarily bringing him back to his senses.

When he looked again at the two girls he realized that they were clinging to each other, expressions twisted in horror and on the merge of tears. And _he_ had been the one to cause it.

Shock and shame bubbled inside him, and he dropped his gaze to the floor, unable to face the human girls, who seemed no older than what Akane was. He clutched the fabric of his shirt on the spot above his heart, wanting desperately to leave the room, but being unable to do so, the smell too luring to let him go.

Yuu-chan's hand moved from his wrist to his hand, and he led Mika inside the room, to the opposite way that the girls were and towards the fridge. Mika did not raise his head at any moment, feeling the stares of the girls piercing him as he heard Yuu opening the fridge.

When Yuu offered him one vial of blood – the smell not as good as the fresh human blood just beside them – he noticed that the boy's hands were shaking. Mika looked up to see his face, noticing that his smile, although sincere, was faltering.

Mika gulped, feeling so utterly _weak_. Even though Yuu-chan was suffering just as much and fighting his own internal battle, he was still able to control both himself and Mika, who had temporality lost to his sickening desires.

The blond took the vial and frantically drank Krul's blood, sweet and soothing. And once the burning on his throat had subsided, his mind was no longer hazy and there was barely any crave mixed up with his self-loathing.

Yuu looked relieved himself, and when he took Mika's hand once more to lead them out of the kitchen, his grip was softer and his hands were no longer shaking.

Mika stopped by the doorway, gaining a confused and slightly concerned look from Yuu-chan. Mika summoned all his strength to turn around and face the girls, who had been too afraid throughout this whole ordeal to even flee.

He took a deep breath and said, just loud enough to be heard, "I'm sorry," and he ran with Yuu back to their room, without waiting for a reaction.

They resigned themselves to stop postponing drinking after that.

It was just a couple of hours after Yuu and Mika had woken up. Even though they didn't really needed to sleep, they kept doing that every day – yes, day, as they found out when they finally remembered to check out what time it was – because they silently agreed that it was a way to keep a small sense of normalcy. And, just like the first day, they kept sleeping in the same bed, even if not right away, they would eventually go to that arrangement.

And in that moment they were both sitting on Mika's bed reading a book that each had picked up on the library on the previous day.

 _At some point during their first week stuck with Ferid, they had decided to take advantage of their situation and use their free access to the Noble's library. This was the room that they most frequented, with exception of their own room, and only avoided going there – or anywhere at all – in the following days to the previous week's 'incident'._

 _It was just three days prior that they had summoned the courage to go back there. The kids there seemed uneasy, and so were they, so they just made their visit as short as possible._

 _The second time they had gone there was pretty much the same at first, but then they saw a little kid, maybe eight years old, trying to reach for a book in a higher shelf, without succeeding._

 _And then Yuu watched, somewhat shocked, as Mika headed towards the boy and picked up the book for him. The kid seemed shocked as well, but then he took the book from Mika with a "Thanks!" and a smile._

 _When they left that time, Yuu noticed, with some satisfaction, that Mika was smiling as well._

Yuu was turning another page of his book when he heard footsteps heading down the hallway. Once their room was in the far end of the hallway, kids didn't usually head their direction, so that fact perked his attention immediately.

But he did not expect, though, that the kid would stop right in front of their door and, after a moment of apprehension, knock it. Yuu exchanged a curious glance with Mika, without really knowing what to do.

A couple seconds passed and they heard yet another knock, this time more certain. "I- I have a message from Ferid-sama." A faltering, girly voice came.

Yuu watched as Mika stood up after a moment of consideration and headed to the door. Without opening it, he asked "What message?" His voice was soft, as to not scare the kid more than she already was.

The girl took a deep breath and said, this time barely faltering, "He said to tell you to get dressed and meet him by the door, he's waiting."

Mika blinked. "Ok, thank you." And the girl left running.

Yuu stood up and walked towards Mika, who had his brows furrowed, pensive. "I wonder what Ferid wants with us…" he trailed off, looking at nowhere in specific, deep in thought.

"What do you think it is?" Yuu asked.

Mika looked back at him. "I don't know, but he hasn't asked for us to leave up till now, it must be something important then…" Yuu nodded.

So they quickly got dressed on their full uniform and left the room. On their way to the entrance they passed by some kids, who kept staring at them. Some of them had calculating eyes, others were apprehensive, and just one or two looked sincerely curious.

The walk took less then a minute, but all the attention that they were receiving made it extremely uncomfortable, so much that Yuu almost felt relieved when he saw that bastard's annoying face.

Ferid stood by the opened door, talking to other two vampires, one with purple hair and the other with black hair. In the moment that the two of them approached the group, the silver haired vampire turned towards their direction with a wide grin in place. "Mika-kun, Yuu-kun, we were waiting for you! And look how c-"

Yuu groaned on the prospect of being called 'cute' once again, but Mika saved him of the pain by cutting Ferid off. "Yeah, Yeah, just… what do you want?"

Ferid had his mouth shut, barely containing a grin. Yuu practically could listen to him thinking 'how cute!' He snorted. "Well, I've got some things to do and it's probably going to take a while. So Lacus and René will take care of you in the meantime!" He said while gesturing to the other two.

"We don't need to be babysat!" Yuu angrily spat.

"Oh, but of course you need! The queen said so herself, she doesn't want you two out of sight," he then flashed yet another smirk, and Yuu could feel his blood boiling, "but look at the bright side, you can walk around for a bit, get some fresh air!"

"We are on the underground," Mika stated with a 'so done' expression.

But Ferid wasn't shaken on the slight by his remark. "Even so! It's been what, a month that you don't get out of here?"

"Two weeks and a half," Mika's correction went ignored.

"Anyway, I need to go now, have fun, kids!" And he left the house.

Yuu blinked and Mika sighed, before finally returning their attention to the other two vampires that had remained silent throughot the whole exchange. The shorter one, the one with purple hair, waved at them while flashing an amused smile, while the taller one just rolled his eyes and looked at the other side while wearing a tired expression.

Yuu groaned for the third time.

"I thought we had a deal," the human angrily stated as soon as Ferid arrived.

"Hello, for you too."

"I'm not here for jokes. You said you were getting me a Seraph, and I waited for five hours without seeing a single one." As he said that, he unsheathed his katana, pointing it just a few inches from the vampire's face.

Ferid raised both hands in a peace gesture. "No need for animosity. You see, I _was_ going to deliver your precious Seraph, but things took an unexpected turn and I was unable to do so."

"Oh, really?" The human had his eyes narrowed.

Ferid hummed in agreement, completely ignoring the threat carried by his tone. "The subjects are now being watched in a close eye by the queen, and it won't be easy for me now to sneak them out. Trying to talk to her at the moment is also out of question."

 _"Ferid Bathory, I am leaving the two under your care for the time being, only because I don't want any other lower ranking to look after my two Seraphs... And because it's your mess to clean."_

 _"Of course, your highness-"_

 _"But don't be a fool, try anything and I'll be off with your head. I've warned the guards, and if they notify me of anything suspicious coming from you, you're done, Bathory. No more excuses."_

 _"My, my, you sure is worried! But don't worry, Krul dear, they'll be in the best of cares, for sure."_

"But don't worry, there's still another option!" Ferid continued, shaking off the memory.

The human retrieved the katana and sheathed it once again. "Keep talking."

The vampire smirked. _Now we're talking business_.


	3. Empty Gold - Black Water

"Wait, wait, wait. It's been two weeks and a half? _Why_ haven't you drunk any human blood yet?" Lacus incredulously asked, not waiting for an answer before quickly adding, "I need to fix that," already turning around and walking away as soon as he finished.

Mika, momentarily stunned by his outburst, took a moment to move and follow him, rushing to his side while asking, "hold on, where are we going?!"

"To the blood bank, of course," the purple haired vampire answered as if it was the most obvious thing.

"What? No, no." Mika's eyes widened and he briefly glanced at Yuu, taking notice of his expression - a mix of confusion and annoyance, - before looking back at Lacus. "We don't want that, we don't want to drink human blood."

Lacus stopped dead on his tracks, turning to look at the blond with utter confusion. "Why wouldn't you want that?"

"We- we don't have to answer that!"

Lacus raised a brow. "Really?" Mika nodded, and then Lacus turned his attention to René. "What weirdos." René just stared back at him with a tired expression.

"Hey!" Yuu protested, promptly being ignored.

Then Lacus once more looked at them, shrugging. "Well then, I think we could just show you the rest of the place instead." Mika sighed in relief, not having to think further on the subject, and followed the two vampires, who once more started walking.

Beside him, Yuu – probably annoyed by being ignored - glared at Lacus.

[After that, the little 'tour' was actually quite pleasant, Mika got to memorize quite a handful routes and Yuu found pretty cool the fact that there was a training room.

And also that Lacus said that, when they got to learn to use swords, he could spar with Yuu.

Yuu concluded that Lacus and René weren't big douches like Ferid.]

Two weeks later, both Yuu and Mika were more than used to the other kids around the house. Not that they were exactly comfortable with their presence, it actually had its ups and downs.

The older ones usually kept staring at them, although discreetly, knowing that something about them was off, especially because, besides Krul, they hadn't seen a single vampire that looked that young.

But the younger kids, on the other hand, were either scared to death or seemed to have a death wish, even if the later, unfortunately, was the most usual – these kids were there to willingly give their blood to a vampire, after all. And though Yuu did feel sorry for these kids, he was also somewhat grateful, because it was with these more open kids that they had the chance to socialize a little bit, mainly in the library. And, at some point, even the most scared ones started to open up.

Not that Yuu enjoyed their company or anything like that, no, absolutely not, he was just happy for Mika, yes, the blond that seemed to like children, not Yuu, who thought that kids were actually quite annoying, running around without a care in the word while playing and smiling and- eh, being annoying.

Anyway, at that moment, Yuu sat on the floor, leaning on a bookshelf while watching Mika. The blond was sitting not far in front of him and with a thick, red book in hands, reading a few short stories for three kids, who had flocked around him half an hour before and given the fairy tales book to him.

Yuu chuckled at the memory of Mika's surprised and somewhat desperate expression when the kids – ranging from seven to ten years – did that. Yuu had noticed that, since the… _incident_ , Mika had become more distant, hardly smiling anymore, and making nearly no jokes, which was a shock, considering the blond's teasing and warm personality.

Of course, Yuu knew that it was because Mika was still blaming himself for… well, everything, despite all of Yuu's efforts. And even though Mika still somewhat treated him the same way as always, Yuu absolutely adored these moments with the little ones, when Mika just seemed to forget the problems for a little while and just enjoy the moment, smiling slightly in his reading as the kids paid full attention to him and his words.

After being finished with the fiftieth story, Mika looked up at the small clock that laid on the table – apparently it had always been there, but just recently Mika had remembered of its existence – while worrying his lip, careful not to pierce himself with his own fangs. Yuu thought it was kind of funny that Mika hadn't dropped his habit, adjusting to it instead. If it were Yuu, he would probably bite himself every single time, although he would never admit that.

Mika turned back around to look at the kids, speaking in a soft tone as he did so, "Um, I think it's getting a little bit late for you guys, I think you should get going."

A wave o protests hit him. "Ah, but Mika-san, can't you read just one more story?" Yuu chuckled once again, gaining an unamused glare from the blond.

Mika closed the book with a snap and raised his hands in an appeasing gesture. "How about another day? At this rate, you're going to get your family worried about you."

The kids were still visibly unhappy, but nodded nonetheless, getting up and leaving the room while waving to the blond. The last one to leave even stopped by the doorway to turn around and say goodbye to Yuu.

Yuu then stood up and walked towards Mika, raising a hand to him. Mika looked up his hand, before holding the book with his right hand and taking Yuu's with the left. Yuu effortlessly pushed the blond up to his feet, and then Mika let go of him to go put the book back in its right place in the shelf.

Mika then turned around and took Yuu's hand again, so they'd head out of the room. But as they did that, they noticed Ferid leaning on the doorway, looking at them with his usual smile. The idea was to ignore him, but of course he had to say something as they passed.

"Aww, it was so cute!" At first, Yuu thought it was just his usual teasing, and he could deal with that, but then he continued, in a much darker and more serious tone. "But I recommend you not to get attached."

Yuu's head snapped towards the silver haired vampire, and he felt Mika's hand pushing his slightly, as he attempted to fasten his pace and get out as soon as possible, but Yuu was having none of it. Yuu let go of the blond's hand and closed both of his hands into fists, all while glaring at Ferid. "What was that supposed to mean?!" He practically yelled in a furious tone.

Ferid then stood properly, pulling away from the wall, and chuckled. He _chuckled_. "Why so defensive? These kids are more than aware of what they are getting themselves into, and they last just as long as they are entertaining, everyone knows it."

Yuu's blood was boiling and he was practically vibrating with anger. "Is everything just a twisted game to you?"

"Ha." Ferid was still smirking, but his stare became daring when he spoke, "I got to find something to do with my time, after all, and things can get pretty boring quite quickly."

"You-!"Yuu was ready to attack him, and he had already started moving when Mika held his arm and pushed him back.

"Yuu-chan, let's just go!"

"No, Mika, I can't let this bastard-"

"Ferid is just a psycho, it's of no use arguing with him!"

Yuu huffed in annoyance, but calmed nonetheless, starting to follow Mika out of there. But as he glared at the silver haired vampire and noticed that that his sick smile only widened instead of faltering with comment, Yuu almost tried to pounce at him once more. But Mika was fast to notice and pulled him away.

Ferid waved as they left.

When they went to sleep, each on their respective beds, Mika just quietly lied on his side, facing the wall, with his eyes opened, while listening to Yuu's restless tossing and turning. Each shift of position or shuffling of sheets, no matter how minimum they were, sounded like bombs on the blond's sensitive ears - not to mention that most of the sounds weren't quiet at all, considering Yuu's 'delicate' manner.

Mika could swear that he hadn't blinked at all in the past half hour, which, he mused, was something entirely possible. He was even starting to memorize the pattern of the wall's texture when he finally decided it had been going for more than long enough.

So, he stood up and made his way towards Yuu-chan's bed, who didn't say a thing during the whole process. And, as soon as Mika was settled under the sheets just behind the other boy while embracing him, the ravenette visibly relaxed, not taking much longer to finally fall asleep. Mika felt a tiny smile tugging on his lips, thinking that his presence alone was enough to soothe Yuu-chan, allowing his mind to shut down for a while and forget about Ferid and their dreadful situation for a moment.

… But none of it would have been happening - and much less on the ravenette's thoughts - if it weren't for Mika in the first place.

Mika squinted his eyes and closed his hands into tight fists, fighting the urge to recoil his arms and get as far away from Yuu-chan as possible, feeling ashamed at himself for appeasing Yuu from something that had been indirectly caused by him.

What stopped him from doing so was less of a noble thought and more of a selfish one, which only disgusted him further. He knew that, regardless of what he had done before – being so stupid, reckless, aggravating more than his own life, - currently being beside Yuu was indeed calming the boy. But, more than that, being this close was something that Mika himself craved.

And thinking about Yuu made him remember all of the boy's obvious efforts to cheer him up. Mika sometimes wondered why Yuu wasn't mad at him for screwing up all of their lives, but he guessed it was to be expected, considering the boy's kind nature, despite his efforts to hide it. Actually, he cared so much that he was constantly dismissing Mika's self-depreciating thoughts, saying that he wasn't to blame for anything.

Mika was quite skeptical about that last part, but, in consideration for Yuu, he tried to push these thoughts away for the time being and concentrate on the comfort coming from their closeness, and allowed himself to go to sleep.

Yuu was still very much pissed with Ferid, totally ignoring him in the following day as they entered the kitchen. Mika looked with narrowed eyes at the silver haired vampire sitting on the chair by the table, a wine glass in hand, filled with a ruby liquid that definitely wasn't wine.

"Weren't these kids enough?" Mika asked, wearing a cold stare and his voice dripping with sarcasm, Ferid's words from the previous day still fresh on his mind. And even though his question was supposed to be rhetorical, the other vampire answered anyway.

"Ha, I just felt like drinking some and the kids hadn't come yet, so here I am." Mika rolled his eyes, looking back at Yuu, who was picking up two vials. It was exceptionally disconcerting the fact that, _technically_ , they were there to do the same as Ferid.

Yuu-chan gave one vial to Mika and glanced once more at the fridge, before closing it. "These are the last ones here…"

Mika looked down at the vial in his hand. Having to drink blood was an ever present discomfort in his mind, that he always tried his best to ignore for the sake of his sanity – having Yuu with him also helped a lot, in a way. But at that moment, with the prospect of not having more stocked, ready for him to drink, some sense of despair started to down at him.

Much hesitantly, he slowly turned his head towards Ferid, who, at that very moment, decided to take an unnecessarily long sip from his glass. Mika was sure that the other vampire did that on purpose, just to mess with him, and it was, unfortunately, working.

The blond grew impatient as he watched the cupric liquid being drunk, all while his own thirst flared up and the lump in his throat grew in size. Mika was ready to down on his own doze of blood when Ferid finally lowed the now empty glass, looking him in the eyes. "You should go to Krul then to ask for more." Mika was slightly pissed and almost asking if he had to take this long to just say that. But, of course, that wasn't all. His smile spread, and he spoke in an excited and innocent voice, which clashed with the amusement clear in his features. " _Unless_ you would, maybe, prefer some fresh human blood?"

Yuu-chan groaned beside him, and if Mika was done before, now he didn't even care anymore. "Pass," he said in an uncharacteristic cold tone.

Ferid shrugged as Mika turned his head back to the vial still in his hand, untouched, ignoring the silver haired vampire as he said, "your loss."

Mika glanced at Yuu, who distractedly and slightly annoyed – courtesy of Ferid – put his empty vial on the sink. Then, with a new sense finality, he turned his own vial and drank the sweet and soothing – although cold, like usual – scarlet liquid. It wasn't until he had swallowed the last drop that the silver haired vampire spoke up again. "By the way, I've got something for you. Dress up and then meet me again here, we're going somewhere."

Mika knitted his brows together at the not really helpful explanation and the sudden turn of events, glancing back at Yuu, who shared an equally confused expression. Then he shrugged, receiving a frown from Yuu, and headed out of the kitchen.

Getting to their bedroom, they quickly changed out of their pajamas – another courtesy from the silver haired pervert – and into their uniforms, taking a little bit longer to put the unnecessarily long boots.

"Stupid boots…" Yuu grumbled as he struggled to put them on.

Mika just sighed as he finished putting his, standing up and walking towards Yuu as he did so. "Yuu-chan, are you going to take much longer?" He asked in fake seriousness.

"Don't even start! Just- why the heck are these boots so damn…" he started angrily saying while turning around his head, but trailed off when he was fully facing the blond. Or rather, his legs. He blinked. "Uh, I haven't noticed before…"

Mika raised a brow and tilted his head to the side, confused. "You haven't noticed… what?"

Yuu-chan seemed to snap out at his questioning, his cheeks immediately turning bright red, and he tore his gaze from the blond and looked at the other side. "N-Nothing."

He finished putting the boots with no more complaints.

When they went back to meet with Ferid, they didn't even have to go to the kitchen, as the vampire was already by the entrance waiting for them. "Took you long enough," he said with an amused expression while opening the door. Mika just rolled his eyes, while Yuu told him to shut up. He just giggled.

As they walked, Ferid didn't tell them where they were heading, and neither did they ask. Actually, Ferid didn't say much at all, which was quite refreshing, and allowed Mika to concentrate better on the path that they were taking. The walk took at least ten minutes and the way was slightly confusing, but Mika could vaguely remember the path from their little tour with Lacus and René, even though the hallways mostly looked all the same.

They headed to an area more deep in the city, and when they entered a larger corridor, Mika finally recognized the place. As they turned one last corner and entered a wide room, Mika's guess was proved right. They were in the training room, where a few other vampires sparred with each other.

"Uh? We are in the training room," Yuu finally noticed.

"Yes, the queen ordered to start your training," the silver haired vampire explained as he made his way to the opposite side of the room.

"Training? You're going to teach us how to use swords?" Mika asked. But before Ferid could answer him, another voice came from the other entrance of the room, close to where they now stood.

"Ferid-kun, did you call me?" They looked at the direction where the voice came from, finding a red haired vampire. He was almost one head taller than Ferid, broad shouldered and strong, easily towering over them. He probably would have been a lot more intimidating, if it wasn't, that is, for his relaxed expression, tiny smile and the easy going way to carry himself.

Ferid turned around to face him, and if Mika didn't know better, he would have thought that his smile had slightly turned from amused to something more sincere. "Oh, Crowley-kun, you came just in time! Here, meet Mika-kun and Yuu-kun," he said while gesturing to them. "Boys, this is Crowley and he's going to be your teacher."

Mika turned to the red haired vampire once more, analyzing him with a new light, while Crowley himself raised a brow questioningly at Ferid, although his expression mostly remained the same. "Am I?"

"Yes!" Ferid answered like a ray of sunshine coming directly from hell. "Oh, and did you bring what I asked you to?"

Crowley nodded, showing two swords that Mika hadn't noticed he was holding before. "Yeah, here they are."

"Perfect!" Ferid exclaimed while taking the swords, analyzing both for a second before handing one to Mika and one to Yuu. Mika hesitantly took the weapon, analyzing it. The handle was black and golden, while the blade itself was weirdly red. Looking up to the side, he noticed that Yuu's sword was quite similar, although the details on the handle were slightly different.

Ferid then clapped his hands together, getting their attention once more. "Well, now that everything is settled, I'll get going. Bye-bye, boys!" He said while already heading to the exit. Mika just stared at him with a blank expression, while Yuu huffed and Crowley waved. To the last one, Ferid winked in response, right before disappearing around the corner.

Turning back around, Mika felt slightly awkward in the presence of this knew vampire, so he unconsciously took a step closer to Yuu. Although, Crowley himself seemed to be somewhat awkward, which relaxed the blond slightly.

And as he glanced at Yuu, he noticed that his eyes were basically sparkling with excitement.

[Mika was divided between finding it cute and wanting to face palm.]

They hadn't put much thought on it when Ferid had told them to get the blood themselves, but now, two days later, after showering and ready to go to bed and, more importantly, without having summoning the courage to go see Krul yet, they were really getting desperate.

The major problem there was that they knew that when they woke up, the thirst would most likely be back at full force and the mansion full of humans. They couldn't risk it yet again, and this time they wouldn't even have Krul's blood stocked.

So, it was to great apprehension and at least half an hour of discussing possibilities and changing subjects that they decided that they should go right away and get this over with.

After changing out of their pajamas and into a clean set of uniforms, they finally left the room. Just to stop as soon as they set a foot on the corridor, still super awkward and self-conscious. After about twenty seconds of standing there like idiots and staring at the floor, walls, ceiling and each other, Mika finally spoke up. "Uh, maybe we are not even allowed to leave alone? I mean, I don't know, maybe we should go talk to, uh, Ferid. Say that we are leaving, you know, just warning."

Yuu nodded at the comment, which was, more than anything, just a suggestion to find something to do instead of just standing there, while still postponing their leaving.

So they headed to the vampire's office, knocking at the closed door. After hearing an overly cheerful "come in!" and glancing at each other while regretting all their decisions, Mika slowly and awkwardly opened the door.

The room wasn't ridiculously big, but it was wide enough to accommodate with no trouble a large, intricate, wooden desk with a huge painting behind it, an entire wall, on the right, of bookshelves filled up with all sorts of books - as if it was a continuation of the library itself, - an armchair close to it, right of the door and facing the desk, and a cabinet on the left wall. Several little trinkets laid on top of the cabinet and on the desk – as well as several sheets of paper, - and a fancy, olive, tapestry was positioned on the middle of the room, being partially covered by the table. And a smiling and slightly amused vampire sat on the chair by it.

Mika loudly gulped – although, for a vampire, every little sound was loud. Ferid's eyes gleamed with interest as he casually asked, "So, what brings you two here to my lovely office?"

From the corner of his eyes, Mika saw Yuu – who had been staring at the weird stuff lying on the cabinet – look back towards the vampire with a glare. It was his first time in this room, and Mika's second, the first one being when he stole the gun and the map – he could still remember which books he had moved to find it.

"We… we were leaving. To see Krul…" Mika started saying, half expecting the other to interrupt him by then to say that they couldn't just walk around all by themselves or to, well, just say anything actually. But when the silver haired vampire just nodded for him to continue, he started to feel ten times more lost and confused, feeling that he was only making a fool of himself.

Then he felt Yuu gently elbowing him, nagging him to continue. "And, uh, that's it. We were just warning you," he lamely finished, and Ferid eyed him with a raised brow, smirk still in place.

"Is that all?" For a scary couple of seconds, Mika contemplated saying that they had forgotten the way and ask if he could lead them, but quickly, and harshly, shook off the thought, not wanting to look this vulnerable and dependent of the vampire.

"Yeah, that's all. So we are leaving now."

"Ok." Mika and Yuu then hurriedly left the room, feeling Ferid's stare piercing them for as long as the door remained opened, which wasn't that long, considering how fast they left, even if they ended up stumbling on each other in the process, amusing the other vampire even further.

As they walked to the entrance, Mika silently fumed, thinking that they shouldn't have talked to Ferid after all and just went straight to see

Krul. And as the anger replaced the awkwardness, he opened the door with a new sense of determination, not even hesitating as they left the mansion and were then out in the open – the fact that that part of the path was empty contributed greatly.

"Hey, do you remember the way?" Yuu asked after about two minutes of walking, seemingly thinking of that detail just then.

Yuu was pretty distracted and it wasn't a surprise that the ravenette had forgotten about it, but, fortunately for them, Mika had quite a good memory and knew exactly the way, even if they had been there only once, one month before.

Mika sighed and said with a playful tone – although weak in comparison to the one he used to use before, - "ah, Yuu-chan, lucky for you, I did pay attention to the way – unlikely someone else - and know exactly where to go, so you won't get lost!" Yuu then huffed and pouted, while crossing his arms over his chest and looking the other way. Mika smiled at how easily angry he got.

As they got close to the throne room, they started to see more vampires, mostly guards, and even though they usually eyed them with mild interest, no one stopped them. It didn't stop them, though, from stalking closer to each other and to the side of the path every time a vampire got closer or passed by them.

Mika knew that they wouldn't hurt them, but this was an automatic reaction, being too used to fear the guards after spending four years living as livestock. The thought did not relieve him, though. Even if the guards wouldn't harm them anymore, the reason behind that was that they had become one of them, and it made his stomach churn in disgust.

When they finally reached their destination, they stopped for a moment, looking up at the large and intimidating doors. Yuu took a step closer and held the knob, without turning it, and looked at Mika, questioningly. The blond pondered about knocking, but then he thought that it would be just silly. So he just nodded back to Yuu.

The boy opened the door slowly and entered the room, taking a few steps inside and pausing, as Mika followed suit, standing by his side. Inside the room, Krul spoke with a brunette vampire, but turned her attention towards them as soon as they had entered. "Mika-san, Yuu-san!" Then she turned back at the other vampire, dismissing him, "oh, and on your way out, tell a guard to bring the box."

Mika shifted awkwardly his weight from one foot to the other as the vampire passed by them, glancing at the two. Before the vampire had even closed the door behind him, Mika and Yuu started towards the queen once again. "So, what gives me the pleasure of the visit of my two adorable sons?" She had a smile on her face and her voice sounded amused, but not in an entirely sickening way like Ferid's usually was.

"We are not your sons!" Mika was going to say something, but Yuu beat him in speed with his angry reply. Krul didn't seem bothered by it.

"Soon you will learn that a sire is the closest that a vampire has to a family."

"I don't need you…" Yuu grumbled under his breath. It seemed like he was going to say more, but trailed off. Krul ignored it.

"Uh, our stock is over…" Mika said without meeting her eyes.

Krul nodded. "Yes, I was expecting you to come eventually. Actually, I thought you would have shown up around five days ago. Have you two been postponing your meals?" The last sentence was said in a slightly reproving tone, making Mika flinch at her inquire.

"Uh… we did, but… we stopped doing that after- uh, after kids started showing up again at Ferid's mansion." Krul snorted, probably at the mention of the silver haired vampire. Although some Nobles could get away with drinking directly from the humans even with laws against it, it didn't mean that other vampire's where totally satisfied with it, as it seemed.

Talking about Ferid… "And Krul, didn't you say that our stay with Ferid was temporary? When are we…?"

"Be patient, this isn't one of my main concerns right now. Eventually we will resolve it," she said with a tone of finality.

At that moment, the door opened again and another guard entered with a plastic box in hands, which he gave to the queen. Krul took the box with a nod, and the guard turned to leave. Mika watched as she opened the box and checked its contents, while Yuu followed the guard's movement on his way out, turning around his head as he passed by them.

A moment later Mika heard the door being closed, and Krul stood up and walked towards them. "Here, it's your stock of blood." Mika took the box and, holding it carefully with one hand, he opened to look inside, with Yuu moving closer to have a peek.

"There're only ten," Yuu said while pointing at the box.

Mika looked up at Krul. "It's half of the vials that you gave us last time," he stated with a hint of confusion.

"Yes, that amount of blood was too much to take at once, which means you'll just have to come more often," Mika nodded, not really appreciating the new arrangement, but understanding her reasoning.

And then she suddenly changed subject, "and I heard from Ferid that you started your training?"

"Aham," this time was Yuu who answered. He probably wanted to look disinterested, but his answer came a bit too fast, and it wasn't really hard, at least not for Mika, to see that he was actually quite proud of himself, almost as if he was showing off. Mika chuckled silently.

Krul nodded, satisfied with the reply. "Ok, I think that's all. You may go now." Both Mika and Yuu nodded and turned around to leave the room.

As soon as they were out, he felt Yuu poking him. Mika looked at Yuu, who was then pointing at the box. "Do you want me to carry it?"

Mika shook his head. "No, that's fine."

They walked the way back in a comfortable silence, putting the box in the fridge when they arrived at the mansion, before going back to their room, changing clothes and finally going to bed.

[It was Mika's bed this time.]

This time, it was Mika who woke up first, and he knew it because Yuu's arms were still softly curled around him and his heart rate deathly slow. Mika turned around cautiously as to not wake him up, and then looked at Yuu's face, framed by his soft and unraveled raven hair, his expression peaceful, and Mika's lips curled into a tiny smile at the sight. Well, perhaps that was really the most peaceful moment that they both could have, with their thoughts shut down and immersed in a dreamless sleep.

But then the blond's smile faltered, because despite Yuu-chan's relaxed expression, his unmoving body, combined with his nearly inexistent breathing, made it look like it was a lifeless body, even if just for the few seconds between each beat of his heart. And maybe that was true, maybe they were actually just that, living corpses.

Mika then realized the line of thoughts that he was taking and tried to push these thoughts away. And it was while trying to avoid them that an idea struck him. A wicked smile made its way to his face as Mika made up his mind. Being a vampire - even a mere half turned one - made even the so distracted Yuu-chan hard to surprise. Mika hadn't tried to scare Yuu-chan that many times this past month, but he had been busted nearly every single time. But now it was the perfect opportunity, Yuu wouldn't see him coming, but it wouldn't be hard to wake him up, with such light sleep.

And he was right, with just one harsh push, Mika managed to jostle the boy awake, causing him to shriek as he literally jumped out of his sleep. His eyes - pupils reduced to mere slits - immediately started to scan the room, a stunned expression in place.

Yuu only turned around, finally noticing Mika, when said blond couldn't hold back the giggles anymore, which soon escalated to a full laugh when he got a clear sight of Yuu's expression. It was just a minute later that the ravenette finally managed to spill out a "what the hell?!" while gesturing with his hands and expression starting to morph into anger.

Mika wasn't planning on saying anything in return, but then something caught his attention. "What are these?" He managed to say in between giggles, while reaching for Yuu's hand. Said boy looked down at his hands to see what the blond meant, his eyes widening as he took notice of the claws.

"Uwaah! These weren't there before!" Mika once more started laughing, this time throwing himself backwards and lying on the bed. "Oi, you aren't helping! Stupid blond..." Now Yuu's voice sounded pretty annoyed, and even though it just made him look all the more cute, Mika tried to calm himself down in order to help the other.

Turns out vampires have retractable claws, and it took Yuu ten whole minutes to calm down and finally manage to retract the claws. But then his anger rose up once more when Mika commented, "Yuu-chan you look like a kitten."

All efforts almost went to waste there, but then Yuu just angrily replied a weak "s-shut up" and turned his head around while crossing his arms, but Mika didn't miss the light blush dusting his cheeks.

Mika was smiling when he suddenly moved to hug Yuu by his back, wrapping his arms around his torso and resting his head on his shoulder. Yuu's arm uncrossed with the unexpected gesture, and Mika could practically feel the heat coming from his face. A moment later Yuu was wrapping his own hands over Mika's, and the blond couldn't feel more comfortable.

Yeah, life was pretty bad at the moment. Their family was dead and now both he and his precious Yuu-chan were vampires. Monsters. And the burning on his throat begging for being quenched with the disgustingly good tasting blood was enough proof of that.

Mika sighed and nuzzled himself against Yuu's neck, tightening his hold on him slightly. Yeah, Mika had done unforgivable mistakes that lead to tragic consequences, but it was times like this, having Yuu-chan to comfort him, that made everything a little bit better.


	4. Winter Sound

a/n: I just would like to thank you everyone that favorited, followed, commented or just read and enjoyed this piece. Sorry for the huge delay and hopefully the next chapter wont take two months :PP

The sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the room.

There where just a handful of vampires training at the moment, while Mika, who had been previously sparring with René, stood beside him and Crowley, watching intently as Yuu fought with all his fury to keep his ground against Lacus, who actually seemed quite chill, like usual.

Yuu attacked once more, swinging his sword in a wide angle, giving the purple haired vampire more than enough time to defend himself, using a stronger blow that caused Yuu to lose his balance, even if just slightly.

Lacus took the opportunity and invested, aiming for the boy's leg. Luckily, Yuu regained his balance fast enough, jumping in the last second. And no, he didn't sidestep, he literally jumped seven feet in the air.

Mika was slightly surprised - not because of his jump though. On other situations similar to this one, Yuu usually only got as far as moving his sword to block the other's, avoiding being directly hit but still taking the blow. This time though, he managed to avoid the blow without much struggle.

And not just that, he was already swinging the sword once more, about to use the motion, voluntarily or not, to boost his next attack. But even though it wasn't that bad of a move, his lack of experience made the movement insufficient, if only because a vampire's reflexes were far greater than gravity's acceleration in such small distance.

So, Lacus had no trouble in following Yuu's movements and blocking his attack. Actually, Mika could notice the delay in his reaction, which could only mean that he was really taking his time and going just as fast as needed.

The moment that their swords clashed, Lacus used the force of his blow to throw Yuu a few feet back, but the boy didn't waver. As soon as he recomposed himself, he was already lunging forward once again. Their swords clashed one more time, this time with both of them holding firm their stance with equal strength.

Yuu, always rushing through things, was the first to pull back. Although, the way he did that, without even sidestepping, gave Lacus a momentary opening, but he – kindly – didn't take the opportunity. Analyzing the situation, Yuu's next movement would hardly be that efficient.

Lacus held his stance with easy, and Yuu swung his sword once more, letting out a battle cry and-

Silence followed as the clatter of metal echoed once more, and Mika stared wide eyed at the fallen sword. He blinked once, and twice.

"Oh my God I did it." All heads, that have been staring with similar degrees of surprise at Lacus' sword, swung back to face Yuu, who was as shocked as everyone else, even if there was glint in his eyes and a growing smile in his face.

Lacus quickly recomposed himself, his shocked expression going back to his usual chill one. "Well, yeah, I was taking easy on you." And even if it was clearly true – he hadn't put that much of an effort in the spar, and purposely ignored a ton of openings that Yuu had left, - Yuu's final blow was indeed a surprising display of strength, even if it was just plain brute force.

"Did you just loose to a brat?"

"I told you, I was going easy!"

Well, not that Yuu gave a damn about it, once he openly ignored the other vampire in order to celebrate his first victory in three months of training. Mika just shrugged and walked towards Yuu.

Yuu turned to face Mika as he approached. "Did you see it? I totally got him!" He was so exited, that Mika couldn't help but giggle.

"Yeah, I saw it. Congrats, Yuu-chan."

"Thanks!"

And then Yuu-chan just carried on showing off and Mika found that he didn't want to end his excitement just yet, so he decided to wait for their actual teacher to come and point out his mistakes.

Talking about him… "Where's Crowley?" He murmured, catching Yuu's attention, while turning his head around in the direction that said vampire stood, only to find someone else beside him.

Mika changed his expression entirely, his tiny smile that had been directed at Yuu-chan vanished, and was replaced by a cold stare as Ferid, who had been talking to Crowley, noticed him staring and flashed him a cheerful smirk, right before start walking in their direction, with the red haired vampire following.

"Hello boys! Did you get your ass beaten up again?" He said as if he hadn't just insulted both of them. Mika groaned.

Yuu, on the other hand, actually seemed exited, probably with the prospect of beating him with a reply, which promptly did. "No way, today I totally beat Lacus!" And he looked quite smug, especially when Ferid dropped his smile and raised an eyebrow.

But before Mika could even be impressed, Ferid spoke. "Did he feel sorry and just let you win or something?" Yuu gasped with incredulity and Lacus snickered, while Crowley made a somewhat disappointed expression and Mika kept glaring, this time more fiercely. Ferid continued, in an overly dramatic tone, "honestly, if he just lets you win like this then you won't learn a thing."

"You didn't even see the match!" Yuu angrily replied.

"Well then, next time I could spar with you myself, then I'll judge if you're really that good, while giving you something more… _challenging_. What do you think?" _That it's a terrible idea_ , Mika bitterly thought.

"Ferid-kun…" Crowley started saying, while Mika raised one hand to hold Yuu's shoulder, about to protest as well. But, of course, Yuu was faster to say something.

"Then so be it! You'll see when I kick your butt!" Mika and Crowley sighed simultaneously.

"Yuu-chan, this doesn't seem like a good idea…"

"What? The creep keeps annoying us and never does a thing! I doubt he's that good either."

Ferid's smirk only widened at that, and he made no effort to correct Yuu. " That's settled, then! Later, boys!" And he turned around to leave, only to be momentarily stopped by Crowley.

"Are you sure of it?" He sounded mildly concerned.

"But of course! I'm sure it will be a quite _enlightening_ experience for him." Crowley sighed, but let him leave anyway.

As soon as the noble left the room, Mika turned to face Yuu, with a single brow raised and a skeptical tone as he said, "you're aware that Ferid is a seventh progenitor and in a pretty high rank in the military, right?"

No, he wasn't aware of whatever it meant, the progenitor thing, that is. And that's exactly why Mika decided that they should study that book that Krul had given them about one week prior, which explained all the vampire's hierarchy and laws in details. And, in Yuu's humble opinion, it was half useless. But Mika clearly seemed to disagree, saying something like 'it's important to understand what's happening' or whatever.

"Yuu-chan, you get now the difference between progenitor, nobles and commoners now?" Mika asked after having explained the topic for the second time to Yuu.

Yuu sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

Mika raise a brow. "Do you really?"

"Yes, really!"

"Then you understand now why sparing with Ferid, who is a sneaky psycho, is a terrible idea?" Yuu huffed and crossed his arms.

Mika sighed and closed the book in his hands, "What I'm trying to say," and laid it on the nightstand, "is that Ferid is way too strong for you and he's definitely up to no good."

Yuu looked back at the blond, noticing how he stared at him with a serious expression. _Why was he so concerned?_

"What's even the worse that can happen?"

Mika sighed yet again, mumbling mostly to himself rather than answering Yuu's question.

"Why am I always trying to talk you out of something?"

Two days later, Mika still hadn't managed to change Yuu's mind, and Ferid fulfilled his promise. Mika knew that he was up to something, but it became all too clear the moment that the fight had begun. That is, if it could even be _called_ a fight.

When Ferid had said something more challenging, he meant something _impossible_. It really wasn't a fight, Ferid was basically just toying with Yuu, and not just that. While Mika could distingue quite clearly the movements in the spars with Lacus and René, and even Crowley – who was a pretty decent teacher, - the very moment that Ferid moved, the only thing that he could see was a blur. The creep had no sense of 'holding back'.

When it begun, he basically disappeared and only showed up again behind Yuu, who was still surprised by his sudden move. "I'm here!" He called in a singsong voice, and Yuu turned around the fastest that he could, still barely managing to defend the attack, taking the force of the blow and losing his balance, nearly tumbling down.

"Damn it…" Yuu mumbled, before trying to attack Ferid, but the only thing that his sword cut was thin air.

When the second attack came - almost instantly, - the boy didn't have the same 'luck' that he had the first time. Ferid's sword swung and did, in fact, hit the boy, and Mika stared horrified and wide eyed at the scene.

"Yuu-chan! Where are you going?!"

Yuu basically stormed out of the room. Well, actually he first tried to kick Ferid from behind, but Mika was quick to stop him, and by 'stop', he meant jumping over him and pinning him to the floor. Yuu struggled from under him at first, thinking in nothing except hitting the damn silver haired creep, but the way Mika stared intently at him plus his almost pleading voice made him reconsider.

But it didn't diminish his fury at all.

 _There was another blur of his sword, too quick, too soon, and Yuu couldn't do a thing about it. Something happened then, something wrong, and then Ferid's attacks stopped altogether. Everything happened too fast and Yuu had to take a moment to process the situation, which felt all too surreal._

 _One moment everything was fairly 'ok, and then came an acute pain in his upper arm, and he couldn't feel it any longer._

He ran while unconsciously holding to his right arm, the ghost of the pain still looming over him. Weirdly, it didn't actually hurt that much, but just the memory of it was somewhat haunting. He gritted his teeth. It just felt so wrong and… unnatural.

 _While he stared down and the blood that streamed down from the wound, a red so dark that almost looked black, he faintly heard the voices without processing immediately, not paying much attention to them._

" _Did you really have to do that?"_

" _What? You say it like it's a big deal."_

"…"

" _Oh, come on, don't look at me like that, it's just reattach."_

 _Tap, tap, tap, tap._

" _Yuu-chan… Yuu-chan…"_

"Yuu-chan!"

Yuu blinked and barely caught himself before he could fall. His legs were a little wobbly and the hold that he had on his arm was loose. _Damn it, stupid perv_. He really was feeling a bit weak, all because instead of saying something, _anything_ , Ferid thought 'noo' and had to be a creep and play his sick stupid games.

"He shouldn't be able to do this…" _There had to be some sort of law against it. Probably. Maybe_. Ok, Yuu hadn't paid much attention when Krul had simply explained the laws and stuff to them, and he and Mika hadn't really gone through that part of that perhaps-not-that-useless book yet.

 _Ugh, if he couldn't kick Ferid, there should still be something that he could do, right?_ No way he was letting the perv win like that…

"What? Yuu-chan, what are you trying to do? Honestly, I don't think that what he did was that big deal for him, I mean, he is a noble, and vampires don't seem to go against _anything_ that stronger ones do."

Yuu abruptly stopped and turned around, facing the blonde just mere inches from him. "Then what? Do you just expect me to accept that and be _'ok'_ with it?!"

Mika paled and met his stare with wide eyes, his voice merely a whisper when he answered. "I didn't mean that."

Yuu huffed and turned around, resuming his walk, slower but still in a fast pace. "… Sorry," he whispered, suddenly ashamed of his outburst. He was angry, yes, but it didn't mean that he had to discount it on Mika.

He knew that Mika had heard him, but neither of them said anything else in the following minute, which was the time that took them to arrive where the ravenette had been heading.

He opened the door quite harshly and entered stomping in the room, even if his anger had subsided a little after his outburst. He looked up at the petit vampire, who was already staring at him with a questioning look. "My, my, what got you so mad?"

He was already across the room when she spoke, and Mika was actually the first to respond. "Yuu-chan agreed to spar with Ferid even after I warned him against it, and now he's angry 'cause Ferid was, unsurprisingly, a creep."

Yuu snapped his head back towards the blond, eyes widen and brows furrowed. "Hey!" _Did he really just say that?_ And then he heard giggles. He turned back to Krul, just to see that she was, in fact, giggling at him _. Damn it._ "The way you put it makes it look silly!" _Which, by the way, totally_ wasn't.

"Honestly, Yuuichirou, what _were_ you expecting?" she said as she stood up and walked in their direction, the giggles dying down. She didn't reach them, instead sitting down on the floor, legs crossed, after she had descended the steps. Yuu grimaced at what she said, but raised a brow at her actions, noticing how she looked up at him while tapping the spot on the floor right in front of her, as if telling him to sit down as well.

Yuu looked back at Mika, who simply shrugged, and then complied Krul's silent request. But, as he reached her, he hesitated for a moment, without actually sitting down. Then, suddenly his hand was yanked and he fell ungraciously with a yelp, landing right in her lap.

His cheeks started to heat up with embarrassment because of the unexpected action, and Mika's giggles only aggravated the redness of his face.

"Hum, you must be quite a handful for poor Mika-san," she said in a sweet and amused voice, and Yuu was having none of it.

"Oi!" _As if. It almost made it look like Mika was his babysitter._ "Like hel-" he started to protest, but suddenly there were fingers caressing his head _just_ in the right place, and he lost his trail of thought, thrown off by how good it actually felt.

"Well let me see if I got it right. Ferid challenged you to spar with him and you thought it was a good idea?" She continued saying in the same tone, if not a bit pleased, but Yuu didn't find in himself the will to protest anymore, barely containing himself to not show his satisfaction. So he just hummed an affirmative. "And just how wrong were you?"

At that last part her voice sounded the tiniest more serious, and Yuu was immediately thrown back to the memory of what had happened just a few moments before. The image of Ferid's sword slicing through his flesh and successfully detaching his limb flashed clearly in his mind, and he shuddered at the thought.

Yuu shook off the image, trying not to think about that weird sensation, and forced out an answer. "He... he cut off my arm."

And then he Krul sighed, dropping her hand from his head, and he _almost_ mourned the loss. "Well, look at the bright side, you've learned two lessons. One about pain tolerance and healing abilities and other that you should never play Ferid's games."

Yuu then turned around to look at her, partially dismissing what she had just said, even if that half amused tone usually annoyed the hell out of him. "And you're going to do something about it, right? Like, punish him or something."

He looked as she arched an eyebrow. "Why would I? Did you seriously just throw a tantrum and walked straight here just to tell on him?"

Yuu's face became red once again, but he wasn't sure if with anger or embarrassment, maybe a mix of both. But mostly embarrassment. "S-so you won't do anything?" He asked with an edge if exasperation.

Her expression was now slightly amused and maybe a little incredulous as she replied. "But of course not, it's none of my business. If anything, it was entirely your fault to agree with him. You seriously should have know better, you know."

Yuu was now fully turned to her, getting up from her lap in the process and sitting on his knees, body slightly curved forward as he looked at her with exasperation. "You're telling me that he freaking cut off my arm and it doesn't matter at all?!"

Krul narrowed her eyes and fiercely met his stare, and Yuu couldn't help shuddering as she replied in a colder tone. "Yes. That's how things work here, and I expect you to understand it."

Yuu gulped and deviated his stare as soon as she finished speaking, looking at the ground instead. He was contemplating if he should try to argue further when he felt Mika's presence looming over him, sitting down right behind him a moment later. Yuu was silently grateful for his soothing presence, which was enough to calm him slightly without really intervening.

Then Krul sighed. "Yuuichirou." Her voice wasn't as cold anymore, but it was still demanding, and so he looked up. "Drink." Yuu stared at her raised arm, blinking. "You lost a lot of blood, didn't you? I can tell how weak you are just by how you fell like a rag doll when I pulled you."

Yuu huffed and looked to the side, but complied nonetheless just a moment later. The boy reached for her arm and brought her wrist to his mouth, biting down. He was hesitant at first, but his doubts vanished as soon as the warm blood entered his mouth, and he eagerly drank it.

By the time that he was finished, he could already feel his strength regaining, and the uneasiness that he had been feeling started to fade away.

Krul then stood up and he looked up as she did so. "Better?" Yuu nodded and stood up as well. "But I hope that you've learned your lesson." Yuu worried his lip, but regretted his lack of attention when he bit himself. He let out a silent 'ouch' before annoyingly replying Krul with a yes.

Krul seemed satisfied enough. "Good then. That aside, I heard that you actually made some progress with your training, so I told Lacus and René to start bringing you two with them to the patrols," and then she made a pause, as if to contemplate something, "and maybe in a couple of months, to some more simple missions as well. Got it?"

Yuu blinked, processing the information. Patrols? In the human districts? And missions? On the outside world? He nodded his head while distantly saying yes, thinking about when it had been that he had last been on either places, faintly listening to Krul's dismissal.

And then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back, finding Mika staring back at him. "Yuu-chan, let's go." The ravenette turned around and saw Krul's retrieving back, before turning back again to the blond, leaving the room with him.

A soon as the door was closed behind them, their hands met each other and they started walking the rest of the path. And even if they walked in a comfortable silence, Yuu could easily notice how Mika was constantly fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, as if deciding if he should say something or not. Despite his curiosity, Yuu thought it would be better to just let Mika decide for himself.

Just a couple of minutes later he spoke up. "…Yuu-chan, are you ok?" Yuu looked at Mika, meaning to ask just what exactly he meant, but the blonde continued before he could say anything. "I'm sorry about how I said that… You know, when we got to talk to Krul."

Yuu frowned, remembering of Mika's almost teasing answer to Krul's question as to why they were there. _Oh, he's apologizing about that…?_

Yuu shook his head slowly. "Don't worry, that was nothing. I'm fine."

But he didn't drop the subject. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

Mika still worried his lip for a couple more seconds before saying anything else. "It's just… You seemed so… _affected…_ and angry, and- I don't know, I just feel like I was dismissing how you were feeling."

"Mika," Yuu paused, waiting for the blonde to look up at him before continuing, feeling a tiny pang on his heart when those sapphire eyes so full of guilt met his own. "Mika, it's fine, really. I- I think I might have overreacted a bit. I mean- I've never had my arm cut off," he said it in a slight laugh, attempting to minimizing it by making some fun of it, but feeling like he was failing, "and it sure was weird as heck, but-" he cleared his throat, even if the action wasn't exactly necessary, "at least now we know for sure that I have some pretty awesome healing abilities, uh?"

It was hard to brush this off as nothing much, and having seen his despair just a few minutes prior made it pretty easy for Mika to see right through him, Yuu knew that. But… Well, he _did_ feel a bit better after drinking Krul's blood.

Mika deviated his eyes, gazing the path ahead as he nodded hesitantly. "Yes… I'm sorry, though."

Yuu sighed once more. "You don't have to. It's like Krul said, it was my fault that I was stupid. But hey, I'm fine now, right?"

This time when Mika looked back at Yuu, his expression started to change into a more serene one. His eyes were no longer so remorseful and there was a small although meaningful smile that might have just taken Yuu's breath away. "Yeah, you are. And that's what matters."

"Arrgh!" Yuu yelled as he slamed the book that had previously been laying on his crossed legs on the floor, flinching slightly at the noise of the impact, but too pissed off to really care.

He had been reading that same paragraph three times already just to realize by the end of it that he had no idea of what he had just read, and he was tired of it. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy reading, he did, really, it was just that he couldn't stand confusing stuff that on top of that just seemed, quite frankly, pointless.

"Yuu-chan, is there something wrong?" Mika asked with mild concern, pausing his own reading. Yuu sighed.

"No, it's just this stupid thing… Why again do we have to do this?" Despite his question, he knew very well the answer. Well, it was just his luck that _that specific_ talk happened exactly during one of the rare occasions in which Krul had gone to watch their training.

" _Where did you learn to fight like this?" Yuu asked incredulously and also with some admiration after ten minutes of hopelessly failed attempts of disarming Crowley. With both him and Mika charging at the same time._

 _The red haired vampire had managed to disarm Mika – who had been charging him up front - in the split second that he needed to go and deflect - without even looking and with the mere tip of his sword - Yuu's attack, which had been charged from behind him and as silently as the boy could manage. Even for vampire standards it should have been impressive, right?_

" _Uh?" Crowley looked at him, somewhat taken aback by the question. "Hum, my captain taught me, but it was a really long ago, back when I was still human…"_

" _Eh? Human?" Even though Yuu and Mika had been human and then turned, it had never crossed his mind up till that moment that the same had happened to the others… Although, now that he stopped to think about it, it probably should have been obvious._

" _Yeah, a few centuries back. Actually, I think it's kind of ironical how back then I fought in the Holy Crusades," Yuu was about to ask what the 'Crusades' were when Mika excitedly started to nerd out._

" _Really? You're from Dark Ages? I read a bit about it once. But wait, weren't the Crusades religious? How come you became a vampire?"_

" _That's exactly part of the irony."_

 _Yuu, with his brows frowned and mouth slightly agape, just watched their exchange without really understanding what they were saying. And then he heard the 'tip tap' of stilettos approaching them with light steps._

" _How long have you been there?" As Yuu spoke up, the other two finally seemed to notice the petit girl approaching._

" _Ah, just long enough to see your…'match'," Krul said with a half amused tone. Yuu groaned. So much for trying to impress…_

" _And why didn't you show up sooner, then?" Yuu replied with some annoyance._

" _I didn't want to interrupt your nice chatting. But then again, you seemed quite lost there," she said as she messed with Yuu's hair, annoying him further._

" _So what?" He said as he brushed her hand off. Krul didn't fight the action, instead moving her hand to cup her face in a thinking position._

" _It made me think of something… You two haven't gone to school since you were eight, right?" Yuu raised a brow, nodding. "Well, I think I should provide some text books for you two…"_

When Yuu looked back at Mika, he was giving him an apologetic smile, but did nothing to stop their studying section. _Eh_. "Which one are you reading?"

"Uh…" Yuu murmured as he thought. _What was the name again?_ He closed the book without even marking the page – he was still in the intro anyway – and looked up the cover. _Oh, right._

"Europe in the Middle Ages"

Mika frowned while looking at the book with a thinking face. "Maybe it would be easier if you just start from the beginning." As he finished saying it, he looked up at Yuu.

Yuu held his stare, half thinking half distracted toying with his tongue. That is, until he accidently bit himself. He then sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before looking back at Mika. "And where's the beginning?"

Mika blinked, and then proceeded to scan the library floor, full of books and stuff around them, finally seeming to find what he was looking for beside Yuu. "Try that book on your left," Mika said while pointing the general direction.

Yuu turned around to look at what Mika was pointing, only to find a variety of books scattered around on his left. "That really wasn't helpful."

"The yellow one," Mika said behind him, to his dismay. There were _three_ yellow books.

" _Which_ yellow?!" Yuu exclaimed, already a bit exasperated.

"That one." Yuu was about to turn around and ask just which one was 'that one', when a mass of blonde hair entered his field of vision, surprising him. Yuu then quickly leaned back, giving more than enough space for Mika to lean over him and reach for the book, which ended up being the one closest to Yuu. So close, actually, that Mika brushed his arm against Yuu's thighs while picking up the book. Yuu felt his cheeks heating up, and it wasn't exactly by embarrassment.

"Anyway, you were on history, right?" Mika started saying as he leaned back again to his own spot on the floor, beside Yuu, instead of _across_ him and- _Wait._

"You weren't?" _But the whole reason why they were studying was history, wasn't he supposed to be studying it first then?_

"No, I actually found this book first and I thought it was interesting," Mika said while pointing at the opened page still marked by his index finger.

There were lots of texts but also some images and a few illustrations of plants and stuff, and the top of the pages was decorated with a green line. Science then. _It seemed that he didn't had to go through history first, after all_. "But anyway, like I was saying. In the case of history, you shouldn't start by a random subject, you got to go linearly."

"Right." _Linearly._

"It means we need to start by the beginning and go on chronologically."

"I know, I know!" Yuu dismissed Mika's _rather unnecessary_ explanation. "Let's just move on already."

Mika chuckled, moving closer to Yuu in a way that their hips were touching, and positioned the book in front of them. "I guess I can look this up with you now, then. Would you like that, Yuu-chan?" He asked while side glancing the ravenette with a knowing smile, obviously aware of the blush that definitely was coating Yuu's cheeks.

Yuu nodded.

Remember when Krul had asked Yuu if he had learned his lesson? About not getting into Ferid's games? Well, Mika really had thought that Yuu had, in fact, _majorly_ learned that. That is, until ten months later when Yuu deemed himself competent enough – _It's been, like, a year, I'm much better now!_ – and challenged Ferid _again_. Mika felt like face palming, he really did.

As expected, Ferid gladly accepted his offer and, _as expected_ , he won. And, while the first match had lasted around six seconds, this one lasted even _less_. Perhaps the silver haired vampire thought that Yuu was starting to get a little too cocky again and decided to put him in his place, starting with his final blown – this time was the left arm.

Mika couldn't really complain, even if the assault made him want to _rip Ferid's throat, pull his guts and peel his skin-_ But Yuu was really acting dumb. Ok, well, maybe, _maybe_ , Yuu deserved what he got, but Mika still worried for him and his, uh, _health_ , as he helped him to reattach his arm for the _second_ time.

Mika worried his lip, carefully as to not pierce himself. He just couldn't shrug off the feeling that he should keep his Yuu-chan safe and in _one_ piece, even if now they were immortal and had supernatural healing abilities. But Yuu certainly did _not_ help.

He then just sighed and followed Yuu as he stomped out of the room.

This time, Yuu didn't run after Krul, he didn't want to repeat _that_ again, instead going back to their room, leaving the door opened and going straight to the bed, throwing himself face first.

A moment later, Mika entered the room, closing the door and dropping their swords in the corner, before sitting on the bed beside him. For a while, he just sat there without saying a word, and Yuu was starting to question if he was going to say anything at all, when Mika called him. "Yuu-chan."

Yuu groaned and sat up, seeing the blond's downcast eyes. Yuu was about to ask what was the problem when Mika surprised him by crawling to his side and cupping both his cheeks with his hands, turning his face so that Yuu was staring directly at him. The ravenette's eyes widened as he felt the weight of his stare.

"You're way too reckless for your own good," Mika stated and Yuu's face started to heat up.

After that, Mika thankfully lowered his head, because Yuu didn't want him to see the sudden redness of his cheeks. Unfortunately, Mika lowered his head to lay it on the boy's shoulder, and Yuu wasn't sure if he could hide the way that his heart skipped a beat.

"Yuu-chan, sometimes you're such an hypocrite." Yuu's eyes widened at the sudden turn.

"U-Uwaah-" He began to stutter, but the blond promptly cut him off.

"You're always so worried about me, but you barely let me take care of you." His voice was firm and he had his arms curled around him, which tightened as he spoke. But then he loosed his grip and pulled back slightly, enough to look Yuu in the eyes. "So please, let me help you a bit." Mika's catlike eyes were pleading and hypnotizing, and Yuu couldn't help nodding.

He wasn't sure about what he just sighed up for, but as the blond pulled from him and started to unbutton his shirt and tilt his head to the side, exposing his neck and basically _offering_ it to him, Yuu's eyes shot open at the realization.

"M-Mika, are you sure?!"

"You lost blood, didn't you? So just let me give you some." He said while pulling Yuu slowly by the hand, his voice luring.

Yuu was just mere inches from Mika now, and his breath caught in his throat. He hesitated.

"It's ok, Yuu-chan. It's ok if it's you." And that was the final permission that he needed.

Yuu lowered down and curled his arms around Mika, embracing him tightly as his fangs pierced his neck. The moment that he did so, he swore that heard Mika moaning, and Yuu would have done the same if he wasn't too occupied drinking his blood.

It was warm and so, _so_ delicious, that Yuu couldn't believe it was actually real. _How could something taste so good?_ There was no way to compare it with Krul's blood, and he was certain that it tasted, dare he say it, better than human blood – sure, he hadn't drank it, but he certainly smelled it.

Yuu tried his upmost best to take only the necessary, summoning all his will to pull back from the blond, who actually whined when he did so. "Done already?" Mika asked, his eyes blown and glassy, and Yuu couldn't help staring.

 _Why again did he stop? Oh, right, he was taking just the necessary_. But as he kept staring at the blond, a craving for closeness kept growing inside him, and lunged forward once again.

He didn't bite this time, though, contenting himself with only a tight hug, burring his face in the blond's neck as Mika reciprocated the action, curling his hands around Yuu's back and laying his head on top of his.

It felt good, it really did, and Yuu didn't want it to be over.

"Mika." His voice was hoarse, but he paid no mind to it.

"Um?"

"Promise me something."

The answer was immediate. "Anything for Yuu-chan."

Yuu felt his heart squeezing with the words, and it only amplified his resolution to say what he was about to ask.

"Please, promise that we will never be apart."

Mika tightened his embrace and moved his head just enough so that he could whisper on Yuu's ear.

"I'd never wish otherwise."


	5. Sinkies

a/n: Again, thank you for everyone following and supporting this fic. And yeah, I did not take two months this time, I took longer, waaay longer. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

When the day that they went on patrols with Lacus and René came, they _thought_ they were ready for that.

For one, they _did_ live in the human districts for four years, they knew very well what it was like to live and wander in constant fear. And two, they had already interacted with the human kids that visited Ferid's mansion plenty of times, and they were already used to the fearful gazes on their backs.

So there was no need for Yuu to be stressing about going back to the human districts, there shouldn't be anything new about that, right? Right, and Mika's overly apprehension was just him being exaggerated.

But, as they went down the sinuous and dirty streets and observed the few kids occupying them promptly running away, all the while catching a glimpse of their haunted expressions, the growing pace of the beat of their hearts and the pat pat pat of their feet against the asphalt… Yuu couldn't help but think of how wrong he had been.

It was only one day after they had fed, so the thirst wasn't much of a problem, even if the overwhelming smell of they their blood that lingered on basically everything, and their erratic, loud, beating hearts, that sounded like drums in his ears-… distracted him. Greatly.

But it wasn't the bigger problem, really. It was thinking about all that while seeing their expressions and practically tasting their fear. And it was then that it hit him. Comparing these kids with the ones that went to see Ferid had been a mistake. Those kids at least had some guts, or were crazy enough to not be afraid. But the ones around there? Well, the majority of them were scared to death of them.

Yuu himself had always been headstrong and downright reckless, which made him braver than most kids, and of course he would forget about that and think that he as a human would be a reasonable parameter.

Yuu mentally slapped himself, while silently hating himself as a method to distract his thoughts from the children. Better curse his stupidity than question his humanity. But seriously, no matter how many times he had face to face confronted the vampires during these years, he wasn't made of steel, he had been afraid of them, he had felt fear creeping under his skin every time they got too close. So how, how could he possibly know that feeling and still smell their sugary blood, which made him slightly tipsy and his mouth fill with venom, anticipating the bite and, and-

 _No_. Yuu shook his head, as if trying to physically shake away these thoughts. He groaned. How the heck did they smell so good? He sighed in defeat and looked to the side, hoping to talk to Mika, but only finding empty air.

Alarmed, he quickly looked around, soon finding the blonde just a few passes behind, just standing there, his eyes wide and yet his gaze blank and unfocusing. When did he stop?

Without actually musing over it, Yuu quickly walked over to Mika, calling his name and receiving no reaction.

"Mika," he tried again, to no avail.

" _Mika_ ," and this time as he said that he pulled his hand as well, snapping Mika out of whatever he had been thinking.

The blond looked at him with a lost expression, blinking twice.

"Hey, you two, what's the matter back there?"

Both boys snapped their heads towards the voice, seeing René standing just around the corner looking at them with a bored expression. "N- Nothing," Yuu replied.

"Then hurry up," came Lacus' voice from behind him, before both vampires turned around and continued on with their walk.

Yuu then looked back at Mika. "Mika, are you okey?" The blond's expression was no longer blank, his brows being furrowed instead.

"…Yeah," he said while slowly nodding. Not very convincing, but he still looked better than before.

"Ok." And then Yuu squeezed Mika's hand, noticing that the other quickly glanced down at their still intertwined hands. "Let's go then."

The air _reeked_ of fear. Fear and sweet sweet _living_ blood.

It was so overwhelming and so good and Mika was practically choking on the smell and longing and self-hatred. He wanted it so bad and he hated himself for that.

These kids were oh so scared and running for their lives, and with very good reason. He felt sick, disgusted, hungry and sick all over again. He knew what it was like to be afraid. He knew what it was to be scared for his own well being and for his family's. And yet.

Yet there he was. Being the cause of that fear. Being the monster that he so much loathed.

It was utterly suffocating, not just the desire, but also these dark thoughts, thick and vicious, slowly clawing their way up to his head and clouding his mind.

Good thing he didn't need to breathe.

"Mika." Next thing he knew, his hand was being pulled and he was face to face with Yuu.

"Mika, are you okey?" _Okey?_ No, he was anything but okey. But… but at least he wasn't choking anymore on his desire and own thoughts.

He nodded, knowing that it wasn't convincing at all and grateful that Yuu didn't mention anything.

They were still holding hands when they resumed the patrol, and they kept it that way throughout the whole time and even after.

Mika was thankful for that. He knew that Yuu usually wasn't the best at comforting, but he was trying, and holding hands was, momentarily speaking, enough.

Thankfully, the following times that they went on patrols weren't as bad as the first one. Mika managed to keep his problem and insecurities at bay and both of them endured the whole ordeal with basically no casualties.

But, as soon as they were back to their room, they would crawl to the bed, curling on each other, and make small talk, or even just stay there in a comfortable silence.

It had been a bit over a month since the first time they went on a patrol. They were starting to get used to it by then, and it wasn't nearly as sufferable as the first time. It was bearable, kind of boring even. After all, nothing really happened.

Until, of course, it did.

At first it was like the usual, with a kid running here and there, accelerated heart beats and empty streets. That day specially had nearly no one actually, once they were in a patrol around what he supposed was midnight this time.

"Ayumu-san, get in already!"

"No, I'm almost there."

That is, until they turned a corner to find not just a couple of slamming doors, but also someone.

The kid must have been around 14, maybe? And also a great climber, considering that he was already half way through climbing a pipe on the side wall of the two story building.

Or at least he was, up till he noticed the vampires coming. Mika noticed how his eyes suddenly widened, his bravado seemingly running thin as he gulped and made the split second decision to go back down and make a run for it.

Mika just watched as he made a swift turn and had his outstretched hand, ready to open the door. But everything was too slow as Lacus, now just beside him, calmly grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him, short from raising him off the ground. That certainty must have hurt, even tough the only emotion crossing the boys face was utter shock, as he stared at Lacus' smirking face.

Mika pressed his lips into a thin line, his breath catching. This wasn't going to end well.

"What were you trying to do? It's already past curfew, you know."

The boy gulped. "I was- I was..."

Beside him, Yuu tensed. Mika looked at him, noticing how his brows were furred and his hands clenched into fists.

Mika walked towards the pipe and looked up at the building, not seeing anything in special. A closer inspection would be required then.

Mika looked around. Both Lacus and Yuu seemed to be distracted, too absorbed with the situation, while René stared straight at him with a raised brow. Mika flinched, all too aware that he had been caught, but figured it wouldn't exactly be a problem. And so he proceeded to soundlessly jump on the top of the building. From there it wasn't hard to notice a golden necklace, the type with a heart shaped locket. The boy must have been looking for it.

Mika picked up the trinket and stuffed it in his pocket, before silently making it back down. He glanced at René, who simply shrugged and deviated his eyes.

Looking back at the scene, the boy was now a nerve wreck and Lacus looked about to do _something_ , his smirk wide, while Yuu was quite on edge and about to jump into action. It was a wonder how he hadn't moved yet.

Mika passed by him while tapping on his shoulder, breaking the ravenette's concentration and causing him to give the blond a confused look, to which he returned with a reassuring smile before turning around.

He walked towards Lacus, not even needing to call up to him, once just his approach already made him jerk his head towards him, curiosity visible on his expression. "Oh, Mika. What is it?"

Mika tried his best to keep his expression neutral, not betraying any emotions as he spoke. "I was just thinking that you already made clear your point. I don't think that this- human... will stay past curfew again," Mika internally cursed himself for his hesitation, but kept going as if it hadn't happened. "I think you can let him go already."

Lacus stared at him with an arched brow for a moment, before raising his head and looking past him. Mika didn't dare turning around, but he knew that the purple haired vampire was looking at René, most likely asking for his opinion.

Whatever had been the answer was something good, once Lacus just shrugged and let go of the grip that he still had on the boy. "Ok, you can go then. You may as well thank him for that."

At first the boy simply stood in place, switching his shocked gaze between the two of them. And then, when he finally snapped out of it, he ended up taking Lacus' words to the literal side, actually turning to the blond and thanking him.

Mika was surprised at first, but managed a 'don't mention it...' before picking up the necklace from his pocket and raising his hand to the boy. "And I think you were looking for this."

The boy's eyes widened, before he hesitantly reached to take the trinket, giving a final grateful smile and sprinting inside the building.

It had taken months, but it's probably better than nothing. The thing is, one day, totally randomly, Krul showed up at what Yuu later learned was around 2pm, when he and Mika were very comfy and snuggling at each other, fast asleep.

It just took her turning the handle of the door for Yuu to snap open his eyes and sit straight in alarm, with Mika doing just the same beside him.

"So, that's what you two do in your free time? Waste with unnecessary sleep. Maybe I should give you two more work?" Her voice was actually playful, and she was giving them a knowing smirk.

Yuu groaned in annoyance.

Beside him, Mika snorted. "I thought what we did in our free time was our business."

"Yeah, and it's not like we only do that!" Yuu added, feeling the need to kind of justify themselves.

[Looking back at this exchange later, Yuu couldn't help slap himself because of how _suggestive_ they accidently made it look like.]

Despite their responses, she didn't seem offended. "If you say so…" and then she dropped the sarcasm, even though she still kept a positive demeanor. "Anyway, I came here for a reason. I've got a surprise for you."

"…A surprise?" Mika asked suspiciously as always, although Yuu could notice some under layered wonder in his tone.

"Yes. Dress up and come here, I'll be waiting outside." And then she turned swiftly and left, closing the door behind her.

Yuu exchanged a glance with Mika, who simply shrugged and turned to stand up.

"What is it? And what would be so… _important_ , that she would _personally_ come here?" Yuu asked, still sitting on the bed.

"I don't know…" Mika helpfully responded as he picked up the clothes from the closet, before making his way back to the bed. "Guess there's only one way to find out."

And then he dropped Yuu's clothes over him. "Hey! Was that really necessary?"

Mika only snickered, otherwise ignoring him. But despite that, Yuu couldn't find the strength in him to be mad at the blond, not when he felt his face suddenly heating up.

So Yuu just turned around with a 'huff', finally standing up to get dressed. "Stupid blond…" he half-heartedly grumbled under his breath. And soon they were dressed and really to leave the room.

They had an eerily uneventful walk through the mansion, and they were almost at the front door when, out of no where, Ferid jumped over them, hugging them both painfully tight. "Aaaaa, I'm going to miss you two so much!"

"Uwahh what the fuck!" Yuu tried pushing the stupid perv away, to no avail.

"Get off you creep!" Mika desperately yelled, before smacking Ferid on the face.

He let go of them after that, leaving them while mumbling something about 'ungrateful children' or something.

Yuu caught Mika's hand and rushed outside, in case the creep decided to come back. "What the fuck was that?"

"How I'm I supposed to know?" Mika said, just as confused as Yuu.

Behind them, Krul cleared her throat, finally catching their attention. "Are you two done yet? Can we go now?"

"Thank God," Yuu said, already rushing down the steps. He would rather be anywhere but near Ferid.

And Mika snickered _again_ before following him. Yuu ignored that _and_ his burning face.

Krul led them to the main building through the same path that they always took, although this time they passed by a few human kids. And that was something that they didn't see much at the time that they were usually awake, reminding Yuu that he still didn't know what time it was.

Seriously, this almost seemed like constancy, not knowing the time, it is.

Inside the building, though, Krul led them through hallways that they had never walked before, and the longer they walked, the less vampires they saw.

"Where are we going?" Yuu finally spoke, for the first time since they began walking.

"You will see," and the she turned a corner, leading to a hallway with a dead end. And then she opened a door, gesturing for them to enter.

Without much hesitance, Yuu walked forward, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Krul as he passed by her. Although, as soon as he turned and looked inside, his eyes widened and he stopped on his tracks, blocking the entrance.

"Wow."

Hands held both his shoulders and body pressed against his back. "What is it?" Mika asked as he looked around Yuu's head. Yuu could hear his breath catching the moment the blonde got a look inside, although he would have heard it anyway even if his face weren't mere inches from his ear.

But Yuu didn't pay much attention to that. Not at all.

Yuu took a few steps inside, Mika letting go of him as he did so and following behind.

"So did you like the new room?" Krul asked from the entrance, although her tone of voice showed that she already had an idea of the answer.

The room was big, bigger than the one they shared in Ferid's mansion. There was a fancy square carpet with a low round table in the center, with a few cushions around. To the side, there were a small fridge and a couch with even more cushions, so many that they could make a pretty intense pillow fight. In the back wall was a Queen sized bed that looked super soft, and in the right wall was another door, probably a bathroom.

Yuu walked towards the door, opening it to look inside. There was huge bathtub. Good. He left the bathroom and walked towards Mika, who was sitting on the bed and testing the apparent softness. Yuu jumped on it, bouncing twice, earning an aggravated glare from Mika. Indeed soft.

"It's awesome." Yuu finally said, answering Krul's question. Mika nodded in agreement.

Krul clapped her hand together in a gesture of conclusion. "Good. There's another room like this one further in the hallway too, one for each. You can pick your things later."

Yuu and Mika exchanged a glance, but did not comment on what they were thinking.

Krul soon left, leaving them alone to rearrange their stuff.

[They ignored the other room entirely.]

Mika was staring. He shouldn't, but he was. And he tried really hard not to think about it, but as Krul, seated by the tiny round table, brought the teacup to her lips, he couldn't help thinking of a tiny girl playing tea party with her dolls.

And then, while she was still sipping from the cup, she glanced at him and he quickly averted his eyes, staring down at his textbook, trying to go back to his reading as he was supposed to, seeing as they were in the middle of a study session.

"Is there something you want to say, Mika-san?" Krul asked with a raised brow, drawing Yuu's attention to the blond as well.

Mika flinched at being acknowledged, hoping that his staring hadn't been that obvious. He opened his mouth, about to deny, when a thought crossed his mind. "Actually... there's something that has me thinking about as of lately…" Mika stopped to organize his thoughts, and Krul took his pause as hesitance, nodding him to go on. "Uh, remember when you mentioned outside missions?"

"Yes, what about it?" She said before bringing the cup to her mouth.

"Well, I was just wondering... what kind of mission is it exactly? Some scavenging of sorts? I mean, with the whole apocalypse thing and everyone dead out there-" Mika cut himself short as he heard Krul suddenly spluttering the blood she had been sipping.

"You ok?" Yuu asked, his voice a funny mix of worry and bewilderment, while Mika simply stared at her in shock.

"I'm fine." And then she put the cup down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, before continuing speaking, now fully recomposed. "I just realized that I hadn't talked to you about this... subject."

Mika's brows creased. "What subject?"

"About the world outside. About what we told you and all the kids when we took you."

Krul paused, giving the two of them a moment for the information to sink in, and when it did, Mika's mind immediately jumped to assumptions.

"You mean... about the virus that killed everyone above 13? And how it's impossible to live outside?" Krul nodded, which only fueled him, although he wasn't quite like Yuu-chan, and so he proceeded carefully. "What you're trying to say... all of this- was all of this a lie?"

"Eh?!" Mika turned to Yuu, who rose to a more kneeling position instead of sitting. "So it means that there wouldn't have been a problem if we had escaped?"

"No, I did not mean that." Her voice wasn't angry, but was authoritative, silencing them so she could speak.

"It wasn't exactly a lie, it was more of a... half truth. And no, it still wouldn't have been entirely safe out there."

"And... how exactly would it diverge from the truth?" Mika asked hesitantly.

"Well, the humans did release a virus, killing the majority of the population above 13 years, but not everyone. There were people aware of the contamination and that formulated a vaccine, and so a small group survived. That and also not all humans had been affected, there was some rare exceptions. And besides that, that virus is not active anymore, so there's no risk of dying from it now."

"And why did you tell us that life was impossible out there?" Yuu was calmer, granted, but his tone was still somewhat angry and demanding.

"So the humans wouldn't try to escape." Mika flinched, immediately thinking about their failed attempt of escaping.

"But why keep the humans in here in the first place?" He asked.

Krul took another sip from her cup, slowly, leisurely, unnervingly so.

"Well, we always kept our numbers down and strict rules in place for ourselves, so the world would be overflowing with humans and blood wouldn't have been a problem. But, when the virus was released and the majority of the humans was killed off, we had to make even more measures so they wouldn't go instinct. And protecting them from the outside was one of them."

Mika paused to think about it, but something still wasn't adding up. "What do you mean by protecting from the outside? You already told that it's not safe, but how is it if there are still humans out there and the virus doesn't work anymore?"

"Because other dangers surfaced after the virus. There are these huge creatures, practically mindless, that hunt down and kill humans. They are called Four Horsemen of John."

"W-what?!" Yuu asked with disbelief, while Mika stared at Krul with wide eyes.

"Is it true?" Mika remembered five years prior, when the vampires arrived to take them. It had been really hard back then to rap their minds around the fact that these creatures actually existed, but it did not take long for the notion to become a common knowledge, what with their situation and everything. But now, to learn that there were more creatures outside besides them... what else could there be?

"Well, of course. But despite their sizes, they are actually quite easy for us to kill, for one because we are way stronger, and also for the fact that they don't really pay attention to us, they only attack humans."

"Really?"

"Yes, and that's why the missions outside are usually pretty easy. We just have to find human villages or agglomeration and offer a deal. Our protection in exchange for their blood."

At the last part, Mika's wonder died down, and he lowered his head. _But of course_. In the end it was just about finding more livestock, after all.

"Offer a deal?" Yuu spoke, sounding quite indignant. Mika turned to look at him, seeing how his hand laying on the table was pressed hard into a fist. "Do they actually have a choice?"

Mika raised his hand to take Yuu's, the one that was under the table. Yuu interlocked their fingers, squeezing tightly.

"More or less. But to be honest, they are usually actually waiting for us."

Mika's eyes widened once again. "Why?"

Krul started to toy with the teacup, pushing the handle and turning it round and round. "You see, humans are too fragile, powerless against these creatures. And most of these habitations are basically forgotten by the human army, making us their best option of survival."

"What?" Yuu didn't let go of his hand, although his hold loosed considerably and slowly.

Krul raised her gaze from the teacup, instead switching it between Mika and Yuu. Mika felt a chill crawling down his spine as she looked straight into his eyes.

"You two will soon learn that what we do isn't quite as evil as you thought. As well as how the humans aren't quite as good and innocent as you imagined."

They were fourteen when Krul called them to tell that she was signing them to a mission. They already knew what these missions were about and were feeling a bit uncomfortable with the prospect of helping at turning even more humans into livestock.

But, at the same time, it had been 6 years since they had been brought to the underground city, and finally having the opportunity to leave and see the outside world – even if it was destroyed, even it was mostly deserted, even if it was a mess – was something that they were excited about.

So when Lacus and René – also especially signed by Krul, probably because there were two of the few vampires that they had interacted with - led them to the hangar to catch the helicopter, Mika was feeling a mixture of apprehension and excitement, while Yuu was practically jumping in place.

They hopped up into the helicopter, along with a few other vampires. Mika went to the far side of one bench and sat there, with Yuu following along. Mika then looked around, analyzing the other vampires while trying not to look so obvious while doing so. The propeller was beginning to spin and Mika was starting to feel unease around this amount of vampires in such small space.

And then there was a tug on his sleeve. He looked over to Yuu, who practically had sparkles in his eyes as he pointed out at the window. Mika turned around in his sit and looked outside, seeing as the helicopter gradually gained altitude.

They finally, _finally_ , were leaving Sanguinem, and Mika took a sharp intake of air as he caught sight of the first signs of civilization, which wasn't very far. And even though it was night still, he could clearly see everything.

The world looked very different from what he remembered.

The city that they were flying over looked completely abandoned, but he also couldn't imagine anyone living there. Everything was half destroyed, with buildings and houses crumbling apart, broken cars crashed or simply left here and there, and with nature trying to take over everything, slowly reclaiming the space.

And it was roughly seven minutes in when Mika first noticed what seemed to be a Horsemen of John. " This thing is _huge_ ," Yuu spoke from beside him, and Mika nodded in agreement, his eyes slightly widen.

"What is it?" Mika and Yuu turned their heads, looking at Lacus, who was now staring at the window. "Oh, you mean the Horsemen?"

"Yeah, how are we going to kill it?" Yuu asked and Mika could swear he heard a snicker. He didn't know who it was though, so, just to make sure, he quickly glared at everyone.

"What? Don't worry about that, they only go after humans and aren't even that strong."

"No, I actually kinda knew that. But still. Big," Yuu eloquently explained his concern. And, If Mika wasn't thinking the same, he would have been the one snickering then.

Lacus, though, just dismissed him saying, "ah, you'll see."

It didn't take much long until they arrived at a small bit of civilization. That is, if a group of roughly thirty people could be called that. Mika was surprised to find a few adults among the group, but what did surprise him the most was actually the fact that (truthfully by Krul's words) they didn't start running as more and more vampires approached, even if they _did_ look uneasy. He especially felt a couple of gazes on his and Yuu's direction, but he guessed it was to be expected.

Mika looked around the square where they were as he walked. The buildings around there seemed as destroyed as the rest of the city, but it seemed to him that, despite that, that was indeed where these people were living.

"We'll wait ten minutes to start reading the agreement, four will go look around the buildings for more humans," René started directing while Lacus just absently stood by his side with sheet of paper in hand. "Other three go look for those two Horsemen that we saw."

"Nice," Yuu was about to follow this second group, when René spoke up again.

"Not you two."

"What? Why?" Yuu asked indignantly.

"What are we supposed to do then?" Not that Mika was that much interested in slaying biblical creatures, but that was still a valid question.

"You two," started Lacus while pointing at them, "are going to stay here and watch."

"What? So we are going to stand here and do nothing? Didn't you say that I'd see how you killed these things there?"

Lacus shrugged. "Well, yeah, but you mostly came here today to learn the procedure."

"But you're not even doing anything right now!" Yuu was almost shouting by then.

"Too bad. You're going to have plenty of opportunities later though."

Yuu looked like he wanted to argue more, but Mika placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yuu-chan. Just leave it."

Yuu did not look pleased, but shut up nonetheless.

[Though Yuu did attempt to sneak out a few minutes later, which Mika promptly stopped him from doing with a so-done expression.]

It wasn't too long until the next mission that they had been assigned to, and this time they had been allowed to come along with the small group that went after the Horseman.

Fair enough, the vampire that killed it did it quickly and easily, and they finally actively understood what they meant. Although this time there was only one of these creatures around there.

So it was just in a third mission that Yuu saw an opportunity to strike. They went to a more crowded location this time, so the other vampires were too busy to worry about them, and no one tried to stop him as he attacked one of the Horsemen of John - though Mika wasn't sure if they would have stopped him otherwise.  
"See, Mika? I said that I could," Yuu said with an adorable and dumb smile on his face.

"I didn't say you couldn't, I said that you shouldn't," Mika replied with an eye roll, but a small smile was betraying his disapproving glare.

Mika looked behind Yuu, seeing as a little girl sprinted towards them. "You know there's another one, right?"

"Yeah, Yeah," Yuu easily dismissed him.

Now, it wasn't like Yuu hadn't noticed how close was the other Horseman of John. Or the girl. No, he most certainly did, and simply didn't act like so because he thought he was way too good and didn't have to worry about it up till the last moment. Stupid.

And when it _was_ the last moment – the creature looming right over them, arms already swinging, and the girl running right beside Yuu, - the girl tripped, basically falling over Yuu and unbalancing him. And then she jerkily got up and resumed her running, stopping not far behind Mika.

And _that's_ what distracted him.

So that was his state – out of position, looking the girl desperately going away and slightly surprised – when the horsemen accidently hit him. This last moment only took a fraction of a second, but then again, the creature was already over him.

Needless to say, he was pissed. And that's why he single-handed took it down a second later. In an unnecessarily gruesome way even, with blood splashing everywhere in the vicinity before the creature even had the chance to crumble to ashes.

Mika sighed and nodded disapprovingly at Yuu, before directing the girl where she should go and then making his way to go help him. Yuu, on the other hand, didn't even have the decency to look ashamed, he just angrily huffed at Mika and looked away.

But in his defense, he was probably, indeed, quite embarrassed. So instead of teasing as well as scolding him, Mika decided to cut Yuu some slack, considering that the others were most likely going to tease him.

"I can't believe it!"

They had literally just arrived back at Sanguinem and were heading straight to their room, but, somehow, Ferid already knew about the incident.

"How the hell did you manage to get attacked by a Horseman?"

To say that he thought it funny was an understatement.

"Shut. Up," Yuu said through gritted teeth as they passed by the obnoxious noble. Mika didn't even waste a glare with him.

"I'm starting to think that you have a thing for having your arm ripped off!" They could hear him saying, obviously ignoring Yuu.

"I hate that stupid perv so much- who does he think he is?" Yuu kept grumbling as Mika finished washing his hair, offering a hum here and there when necessary.

"But you know, you kind of are giving him reasons to make fun of you," Mika said, for the first time since he got Yuu in the bath.

And, as the words sank in, Yuu's eyes widened and he abruptly turned around to face the blond, splashing water and shampoo everywhere. "Whose side are you on?!"

Mika had this tiny smile of his that he usually wore when he knew he was going to piss him off, and the shrug that he gave didn't help any to quell Yuu's indignation. "I'm just saying. I mean, how many times has it been already? Three? And not just that. If it had been just Ferid it would have been one thing, but getting your arm ripped off by a creature that wasn't even aiming for you?" Instead of finishing he just shook his head disapprovingly.

"Sh-shut up," Yuu weakly said as red started to tint his face, this time not as much by anger as by embarrassment.

"Maybe," the blond continued, "you should try a bit harder and put some effort into gaining a bit of, you know, respect." Mika's words shocked him and he felt his eyes widen once more, but the worse part wasn't even that. It was that, even though Mika was talking with a clear faux-serious tone, Yuu knew he wasn't entirely joking.

But he wasn't about to give in just yet.

"Screw these idiots, if they have a problem with me, I'll kick their ass and see what they think then!"

"Well, I think that you should try something different, because if you wait for when you kick their ass to gain a bit of respect, God knows it's going to take a while."

"Oi! You think it's not gonna work?"

"Like it worked with Ferid?" Mika's expression switched to a serious one and his tone became sharp, cutting any possible response that Yuu would give.

Yuu's shoulder slumped and Mika sighed, going back to wash Yuu's hair.

"Look, Yuu, I know you're brave and stuff and ready to get in any fight but, it's like I always say. You've got to think a little and wait."

Yuu's attention doubles especially as Mika hesitates before continuing. "I know things didn't work out like it should have the last time…"

"Mika-" Yuu was about to contest, knowing exactly what Mika was hinting on by this, but Mika didn't give him a chance to speak.

"And I know that we are a bit closer to their level now, willingly or not," and once again Yuu wanted to stop his trail of thoughts, "but everything is different now and we can't simply say 'screw it' and go around kicking everyone."

Yuu flinched, but otherwise didn't say anything in response. After that he finished his bath quickly, wiping himself then as Mika drained the bloody water from the bathtub. And as he left the bathroom, Yuu kicked his ripped uniform to another corner on the floor out of spite.

He threw his wet towel on the couch, gaining a disapproving stare from the blond (which he promptly ignored), and went to put on his clothes.

Yuu had just finished dressing up when suddenly Mika was all over him, his arms embracing in a tight hug.

"Oi, what is it? You had literally just been scolding me and now you're clingy?" Yuu said, with surprise, his voice muffled by curly blonde hair.

"Exactly, I already scolded you, now it's hugging time."

"W-what?" Yuu gasped with incredulity. "It's way too close…"He added, his blood loss finally catching up to him, specially now with such proximity.

But, to his astonishment, instead of getting the messenger and letting go of him, Mika straight out said "That's that intention."

"What do you want? To be bitten?"

It seemed that Mika was suddenly full of surprises, because his next answer was none less than "Well, you did lose a lot of blood, didn't you?" And then it was no longer possible to misunderstand what he was hinting on.

"You know that I can drink from one of the vials from the fridge, don't you?" Yuu tried, cautiously.

This time Mika didn't answer right away, and Yuu became all too aware of how fast his heart was beating.

"Well… You can also drink from me."

Yuu then pushed Mika away, but not entirely, just enough to look at his face. His brows were furrowed slightly, as if he were apprehensive, but he was smiling and Yuu could see the sincerity on his eyes. But it was only when he nodded that decided.

Yuu raised his hand to Mika's face, pushing his hair aside in order to give him space, and he went forward, the same time as the blond embraced him. As the ravenette opened his mouth, his fangs were already elongated and coated in venom, and he loomed over Mika's neck only for a moment before biting down.

It was as good as the last time, if not even somehow better, and as Yuu lost himself in the sweet sweet taste of his blood, he started to feel more relaxed, as well as all his anger wash away. None of this mattered right now. But he was soon detaching from Mika, a bit too soon and at the same time a bit later than actually necessary.

And then they were both staring at each other, Yuu no longer confused and Mika no longer apprehensive. He felt content.

"Is it becoming a routine?" Yuu jokingly said, thinking about the last time that he drank Mika's blood, which had been in a similar situation. He did not even care if he was now the one indirectly hinting on how prone he was to getting, eh, seriously wounded.

But then Mika's face becomes stern and he says, "I surely hope not."

Yuu is caught off guard and stiffens, feeling an acute pain in his chest that he can't quite understand.

But not a heartbeat passed and Mika's lips quirked upward with mirth. "But you are hopeless cause, Yuuchirou. So I wouldn't be surprised if you end up losing an arm again anytime soon."

And so Yuu releases a breath that he hadn't noticed that he had been holding. And he's smiling as well then, and he's just glad.

And then, he's not sure exactly how it happened or what he had been thinking. He's not sure if it was him or Mika who reached forward, or if it was both at the same time. He doesn't know if Mika cupped his face with his hands first or if he threaded his fingers on his blond satin soft locks.

He doesn't know exactly if his eyes were already closed or if he just shut them when their lips touched, but it all felt so natural, so right, that he honestly is not sure how it did not happen earlier.

It was a chaste kiss, but it held so much emotion that words weren't necessary afterward, and something certainly had changed then.

[Later, they had been already cuddling in bed for around ten minutes when Mika called up.

"I still think you should be less reckless though."

"Noted."]


	6. Life in the vivid dream p1

a/n: Thank you for everyone following and supporting this fic. This update actually took me less than the last one, even if it's been… 5 months?

Anyway, I got a couple of announcements before we get to it.

First, I now got a beta reader! Yey! She is sophelia_moon on archieve of our own if you wanna check her stuff. She has a role reversal AU B)

Second, this is the last chapter of this first arc, and so I decided to do something special, bigger. And then I ended writing a chapter so big (14.4k) that I had to split it into two onz

Which leads me to announcement 3: this is only part one of the chapter. Part 2 is written but waiting for review, and so I'll post it next week.

And I think that's all… Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it :D

It happened so quickly…from the moment that they first heard the screaming to when they realized exactly what was happening, it was already too late.

Yoichi didn't have to go look at the window to know what was outside; instead he ran towards his sister, holding tightly at her sweater to the point where his knuckles turned white.

"V-vampires! We need to run! What do we do now, nee-san?!" Yoichi looked expectantly at his sister, even if the girl herself had her complete attention focused on the closed bedroom door.

Tears quickly flooded and ran down the boy's face. Only Tomoe's arms, tenderly embracing him, kept him from completely breaking down.

And then came the loud crash of the front door being kicked off its hinges. Yoichi flinched at the sound, a hiccup escaping his lips. He instinctively gripped harder at his sister's sweater and opened his eyes—when did he close them?—as he felt her finally moving. He looked up, finding himself face to face with her.

"Yoichi!" She paused for just a moment, but it was enough for Yoichi to have a good look at her troubled expression and the glimmer in her eyes resulting from unshed tears. He knew she was scared, but he also knew that she was too strong to let her emotions overtake her…unlike him.

And then, he was being shoved under the bed. "Don't come out from under the bed for any reason!"

Yoichi sobbed as she whisper-yelled, and their eyes met for a split second before they heard footsteps coming down the hall.

Tomoe's head snapped back towards the door, and she quickly stood up and walked away from the bed. Yoichi wanted to call out to her, but he noticed the way her hand was twitching and how she was making a point not to look back at him.

The last thing that he saw before the door was thrown open was Tomoe wiping the tears that may or may not have been shed.

And then, a lilac-haired vampire stood by the door. One heartbeat later he wasn't standing there anymore. No, he was closer, way closer. In a flash, he was suddenly upon his sister—his brave big sister—his hands holding her up by the neck as she frantically clung to him, her feet dangling helplessly.

Yoichi's focus completely revolved around Tomoe, to the point where he didn't notice the rushed footsteps that approached the room, and barely registered the presence of two new figures by the doorstep.

"Hey, what are you doing! We are not supposed to feed from them!"

"Eh? Why not?"

Tomoe desperately kicked the air, a whimper escaping her. Yoichi fought back a sob.

"No, stop!"

And then came Tomoe's muffled scream. It went as fast as it came, and her agitated form quickly started to go limp. A few drops of blood crashed to the floor.

And then, so did her body.

Yoichi was shaking as his wide eyes stared at Tomoe's lifeless body. Her half-lidded and empty cold eyes stared back at him.

She had not cried.

Yoichi didn't know how long he stared at her, and he would have done so for much longer if his senses didn't slowly return to him in time to notice a movement coming from behind her.

The lilac-haired vampire wasn't there anymore, and instead there were two others; there seemed to be something off about them, however. He wasn't sure exactly what it was though. He would have known if he had paid attention to them sooner, but now they were alarmingly close and he wasn't able to see most of their figures.

They were standing just behind where Tomoe was laying, a bit off to the side. One of them took two steps closer and Yoichi almost had a heart attack right then and there.

But thankfully, by what he could grasp of their interaction from his limited viewpoint, it seemed like the other vampire had grabbed his arm or something and stopped him, and now they were having a silent conversation. Yoichi could hear them whispering, but couldn't make out the words.

A few very, very tense seconds passed by. Then a minute or two. Yoichi had been holding his breath with apprehension, but he hadn't realized up until that moment that he was starting to feel dizzy. He wanted to take a desperate, deep breath, but he was still too afraid to make the faintest sound, the room suddenly deafeningly quiet around him.

And then there was a shift in their position. Were they finally leaving? Did it work? Yoichi felt a stab of hope, a second of happiness flashing through his mind, and then—

Bright, slitted eyes were staring right back at him.

The whine that came from him was so sudden that Yoichi couldn't even think to hold it back before it was already out.

And as unexpectedly as the face had appeared in front of him, it disappeared, the other vampire seemingly pulling this one back up. It didn't matter that the contact lasted for only a couple of seconds; the face had been engraved in his mind…and, now that it was no longer staring back at him and Yoichi could begin to (slightly) calm down his racing heart, a few details started to sink in.

The childish face, not much older than his own...the green eyes...

Yoichi had heard that vampires were non-aging immortal beings, but he had never seen or heard of such young-looking ones, not to mention the eyes. While his physical age could be shrugged off as something unusual, he didn't think that the same could be said about the eyes…

Well, it wasn't like he was a specialist or anything anyway.

…Or that he would live long enough to find out the answer.

After everything that Tomoe did, sacrificing herself to save him…to think that all of that had been in vain was nothing short of heartbreaking.

They knew he was there all along.

Had he been too noisy? Maybe it would have been better if he had taken Tomoe's role in the first place; if he had been the one to die first instead of her, maybe then she would have had a better chance—

A wracking sob cut off his train of thought. What was he thinking? He would never have summoned the courage to do what she did. He didn't want to face death, he didn't want to die at the mere age of thirteen, he wasn't ready!

Tears accumulated in his eyes, completely blurring his vision, a soundless and miserable cry breaking from him. It was too late, too late, too late. This was it for him.

He sniffed; a tear rolled down and splattered on the floor. The vampires in front of him moved again. He closed his hands into fists, closing his eyes just as tightly. His chest hurt from the crying as another sob escaped his lips.

His fists closed even more tightly, this time not in fear but in anger: anger at himself. Why couldn't he be quiet already? Why couldn't he be more like Tomoe? If he hadn't been such a crybaby from the beginning maybe now he wouldn't be in this situation. But it was pointless to think about it now. Stupid, stupid, stupid, coward—

"Uh, hey."

Yoichi opened his eyes, flinching slightly as he saw the vampire crouching just beside the bed. He still couldn't see his head, but he had the impression that it wasn't the one who had shown his face moments earlier.

"I'm sorry for scaring you earlier. We didn't mean to."

Yoichi furrowed his brows. His voice sounded so calm and tender, and the way he spoke…but, as much as Yoichi wanted to trust them…no. It was probably a trick; it had to be.

There was a pause before he continued, as if he were collecting his thoughts. "Look, I know that a simple apology won't fix anything. And I wish we could do more but...well, there's another human colony almost exactly east of here. It's around one hour away walking, but it's way more secure than here…I'm sure that you would be safe there. And I know it kinda sound hypocritical or like there's a catch or something but—" He sighed.

Something really did sound wrong but…if Yoichi were to be honest with himself, the more that this vampire spoke, the more his resolution that he couldn't trust him crumbled.

The vampire stood up. "I hope you make it somewhere safe."

And then he turned away, heading towards the door. "Come on, Yuu-chan."

Yoichi could finally get a glimpse of him. He was just as young-looking as the other one, with blond hair and blue eyes. Definitely a vampire though.

"Hey, Mika, we can't just—" The other one trailed behind, leaving the bedroom with a single lingering glance in Yoichi's direction.

"Come on before they scold us for taking so long."

"Ah, I'm coming!"

His voice was further away now, and soon Yoichi couldn't hear anything else.

He was all alone now.

But, most importantly, he was alive.

"No! Please, stop!" Mika screamed, his voice a ghost of an echo.

He wanted to stop it all, but was stuck in place as he hopelessly watched the scene with tear-filled, blurry eyes.

Tiny hands gripped white fabric, screams cutting like daggers in Mika's heart. It would have hurt no matter what, but to know that it was all his fault made it a hundred times worse.

Because if it hadn't been for his stupid, stupid self-centered "genius" plan, this monster wouldn't be now holding flimsy bodies, sinking teeth in their tender skin, sucking their life until there was nothing left, strong grips—as strong as they could—finally going lax.

His precious family, dropped on the ground like dead weight. Glassy eyes—unfocused and yet still filled with so much pain and fear—staring at nothing.

Or at least that's what he told himself. In reality, it felt like they were all staring right through him, carving guilt-filled holes into his skull.

It was all his fault.

All his fault.

All his fault…

His vision started to tunnel and everything got far, far away, darker and darker and…

"—ka?"

"—you ok?"

"Mi—"

"Mika!"

Mika was thrown out of his memory, his eyes widening as reality suddenly came crashing back around him. If he had still been human, he would likely have had trouble breathing for the moment. That wasn't the case, however.

"Mika, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Mika looked back at Yuu, the concern stamped all over him. Mika let out a sigh and felt himself relaxing a bit, leaning closer to Yuu and hanging his head low.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

"My ass you're fine." One of Yuu's hands held firmly onto Mika's shoulder while the other gently lifted his head up. Blue eyes met green, concern now mixed with annoyance, which was quickly replaced by something more tender.

"You idiot. I thought we were long past this bullshit."

Mika looked to the side, knitting his brows together and biting his lower lip. Well, Yuu did have a point…

"It's just..." Mika glanced back at Yuu, and the look that the other boy was giving him was a clear challenge; he was daring Mika to give another excuse. He had already resolved to tell the truth, but the sight still made him pout for a moment.

"Look, I think...what happened yesterday, it—it made me think." He didn't want to say anything else and hoped that his words had been enough, but as he looked at Yuu's expectant look, he knew they weren't.

He took a deep, unnecessary breath to psych himself up to speak once again, hopefully for the last time.

"...About our family."

And thank goodness, as soon as he said that, Yuu's eyes widened with realization.

A moment passed and his expression once more softened, and the next thing he knew, Yuu was pulling him into a hug. And it was then that Mika realized just how much he desperately craved the closeness.

"It looked so much like that day...I mean, not actually, what Ferid did was ten times worse, but it just—" The uninvited words rolled down his tongue, and yet, the weight that left with them was liberating.

"Shh, it's okay. It's going to be okay," Yuu said as he held him tightly and stroked his hair in calming patterns.

But it wasn't okay.

And it wasn't going to be, not really.

So what was the point of saying it...?

"Okay, since our attempt to teach Yuu how to drive failed miserably—"

"Hey!"

"—we'll try it with you this time," Lacus said. Mika simply stared up at him, blank faced.

Everything had started a couple of days before; they were in the middle of a mission when Yuu saw a car speeding in the distance. They had neither the time nor the interest in going after it, but just catching a glimpse of it was enough to amaze Yuu. His wonder was silly, but nonetheless adorable, which made Mika want to indulge him, if only he could.

Naturally, Yuu made a comment about it, which really wouldn't have made much of a difference at all—if Lacus hadn't accidently doomed himself by saying that "driving is overrated." This prompted Yuu to go on, but it was only when Lacus let slip that yes, he knew how to drive, that his fate as an unwilling instructor was sealed—even though he later agreed that teaching them how to drive might come in handy at some point.

Disregarding the fact that Mika did agree with Lacus on that point, and that Yuu's puppy face was sadly one of his weaknesses, he had not signed up for this. And apparently, neither had René.

"Not 'we.' You are going to teach him." And just like that, he left. Lacus stared wide-eyed at him and tried to call him back, but after being so blatantly ignored, he gave up, recomposed himself, and looked back at Mika as if that hadn't just happened.

Mika felt a pang of annoyance at the way René departed, the implicit opinion that Mika would fail as well clear in the air, but really, he couldn't blame him. At least not after what Yuu did.

No one expected Yuu to be good, but to be so bad to the point where he somehow hit two light poles in a single movement and almost flipped the car over (really, how the hell did he manage that?) brought it to a whole new level. Seriously, they weren't young enough for age to be an issue (Mika had just turned fifteen and Yuu's birthday was soon coming), but even if they were, come on.

All in all, Mika believed that he could do, uh, a lot better than Yuu.

It didn't mean, however, that he would miss an opportunity to mess with Lacus.

So, while Lacus went on about not releasing the clutch too quickly because it would choke out the engine and be a huge pain, Mika summoned his best deadpan face and stared Lacus dead in the eye as he released the clutch.

Mika almost betrayed his perfect face with a smirk when he caught a glimpse of regret on Lacus' expression.

Mika's back hit the wall none-too-gently as Yuu pushed him, holding him in place by his wrists.

"Yuu-chan, I didn't know you were that thirsty." Mika wore a sly smirk, not bothered by the harsh treatment. If anything, it definitely amused him.

"Shut up," Yuu responded dismissively. He moved forward and locked their mouths together, a gesture that the blond eagerly returned.

The action was quick and borderline desperate, but became gentle the moment their lips touched, contradicting Yuu's previous demeanor.

The softness didn't last long though, and the kiss soon became heated.

Mika opened his mouth and Yuu had just extended his tongue when they heard a knock on the door.

Yuu whined in his mouth, certainly tempted to continue, but Mika turned his head, breaking the kiss and missing the contact immediately. "Yuu-chan, we need to check it."

Yuu whined once more, but reluctantly let go of his wrist. He did not step back, standing still and looming over Mika instead. The blond rolled his eyes, a smile tugging on his lips, and then gently pushed him away to get to the door.

As he opened the door, he found himself face-to-face with a common guard.

"Do you need something?" he asked. His tone was firm, only betraying a fraction of his confusion.

"Yes. I bring a message from the queen."

Mika and Yuu had just turned the corner to the hall that would lead to the throne room when they saw Krul. She was finishing talking to two guards, sending them off to do something just in time to turn and see them approaching.

"Great, you're here. Hurry, before we lose even more time," she said while gesturing for them to follow. Mika noticed the way her brows were creased and how she hurriedly acknowledged them before starting to lead them to an unknown direction.

"Ugh, it's not our fault if you called us at the last minute," Yuu grumbled beside him. Mika would have scolded him for his rather unnecessary remark if there weren't a point to it.

"I'm aware," she answered without looking back at them. Mika raised a brow at her easy response. "Although, I just now had an idea and thought it would be interesting for you to be present."

"...Present for what, exactly?" Mika finally asked.

They had not been expecting this meeting and had no idea what it was about; the only thing the guard said earlier was that "the queen urgently requests" their presence. So of course a few explanations were in order and, thankfully, Krul promptly answered them...or partially, at least.

"Right now I'm going to a conference to discuss a highly important mission overseas, and you are coming with me."

"Overseas?" Yuu's tone was a mix between confusion and excitement, and Mika couldn't blame him for focusing on that part of Krul's statement. Although, a more pressing question should be asked…

"Wait, if this is that important, why do you want us to attend?"

This time, she didn't answer right away, but also didn't take long to choose her words.

"There's a very delicate subject that I wanted to discuss with you eventually, and now an opportunity has simply presented itself," she said with measured words. "I'll send you on this mission, and having you present in the conference will save half of the explanation. But"—she abruptly stopped, turning around to face them with a serious expression—"don't forget, this is a very important matter, and you shouldn't actually be here in the first place. So I expect you two to be on your best behavior. Any questions you have, don't ask. Everything you want to say can be asked to me later. Understood?"

They both quietly nodded. Mika's brows were furrowed as he thought. If it were such an important meeting, then her reaction made sense. Although, the question of what it was about still remained.

"Good," she said with a tone of finality. Their talk was over. And so she turned back around and kept walking, turning two more corners before arriving at their destination.

"Okay, I don't know why you thought that going to that meeting would cut down on explanations because I understood jack-shit of what was happening and the only thing I got from it is a ton of questions. So please do us a favor and just explain what the fuck is going on!"

Yuu was furiously pacing around the room, his attitude seeming to bother Krul not at all.

It had been two days since the meeting, a meeting that, as Yuu clearly said, only brought a ton of questions. It was hard to stay quiet throughout the whole ordeal, and Mika had to hold Yuu back once or twice to prevent him from saying anything. But the worst part was, perhaps, having to wait for Krul to find some time to sit and explain things to them.

And sitting she was, beside Mika in front of the table in their room with a teacup in hand, like any other typical visit that she would pay them from time to time.

It didn't feel entirely typical, however. Even though she did drop some bombs on them in the past during similar situations, that meeting had been on a new level. To know that the humans had been doing these sorts of experiments...it seemed too low, even for them, and Mika needed clarification.

Especially...

"An experiment this advanced...how did it take that long for us to find it?"

"You say that as if something worse hadn't slipped by us. The Hyakuya experiment was way more advanced at the time that we barely got to them."

"That might be true, but we all know that the Hyakuya Sect was actually professional. They knew what they were doing, unlike these idiots..."

...especially if they were in the middle of this mess.

"Krul…what is the Hyakuya Sect?" Mika asked, straight-out addressing the elephant in the room.

With that, Yuu stopped pacing and looked expectantly at Krul. They waited anxiously as she laid the tea cup on the plate.

"The Hyakuya Sect…" She paused for a moment to meet both of their gazes. "It was a religious organization and the largest of the magical syndicates in Japan, not to mention their immense political power. They had many resources, and all the control that they had over the country made it hard for us to reach it…"

"And that's why they were so successful in that experiment, the…" Yuu trailed off.

"The Seraph of the End. Yes." Krul finished for him, since he'd probably just forgotten the term.

"And what exactly is this experiment? You mentioned a law…what was it about?" Mika inquired.

"The Seraph of the End…is humanity's attempt to acquire more power than they can handle…among other things." She trailed off for a moment, her eyes getting lost in the distance, but before Mika could question her further, she continued. "There is a gene, a gene like any other encoded in the human DNA. It's no ordinary gene, however. First, it's extremely rare; the chances of finding a holder of it are slim. And second, it is a sort of bridge...a link that allows for a connection between the holder, the vessel, and an angel…more specifically, a seraph: one that would bring upon the apocalypse."

Mika's eyes widened and he found himself looking to the side, locking eyes with Yuu, who seemed as shocked as him. Yuu opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. He closed his mouth shut.

"...Actual angels?" Mika spoke.

Sure, there were vampires, monsters, demons even, but…angels? Well, maybe he should stop getting surprised by these sorts of things…

"Yes, actual angels. But it's very hard for them to materialize in reality. Even if someone has the gene, they might live their entire lives without the link ever being activated. And that's what usually happens. The seraphs only manifest in specific circumstances, as far as we know. They are only called when a 'sin' is committed, and they only ever appear in a certain order, so they can blow the trumpets of the apocalypse and bring punishment upon humanity." She paused, allowing the information to sink in as she took a sip from the teacup. "These circumstances, though, do not matter to those greedy humans that perform the experiments. What they want is to find ways to artificially trigger the coming of the angels, as well as forms to bind them to their will."

"Wait. But this is nonsense. The experiment itself is a 'sin', isn't it?" Krul nodded, confirming his suspicious. "So, they fail, either by not managing to bring the seraph or to bind them, and the seraph appears anyway to punish the humans. Or they succeed, which, as far as I could grasp, hasn't happened yet, and they gain the power over an angel…but for what? What would anyone gain from these experiments?" Mika spoke in a rush, exasperation clear in his words.

Krul looked directly at him, and he held her stare, not looking away even when he noticed Yuu walking closer and sitting behind him. The way Krul looked at him…he could sense that she was carefully thinking over what to say, measuring her words.

"I'm afraid that there are things to gain through the seraphs, but most of it wouldn't be required if no one had messed with them to begin with…the Hyakuya Sect is quite a depraved organization, but they weren't the type to fool around. I'm not sure what their intentions were, but they might have had a motive greater than just seeking power, different from all those other delusional organizations that decided to play with this holy power."

Things to gain with the seraphs…Mika didn't think they were something worth messing with. The majority of the population had been wiped out because of it, after all. But apparently people weren't even doing it for a "good" reason. These people were dooming the entire population for greed; if they hadn't committed the taboo in the first place, they wouldn't even be in this situation. The vampires would have never showed themselves and...and he could only wonder how much different things would have been, even before...

And then Yuu was leaning his head over his shoulders, one arm circling his torso in a semblance of an embrace and one hand holding his. Yuu probably felt Mika's distress; he was grateful for the contact.

"...And what about the law?"

Krul was no longer looking at him, now only half interested in the conversation, her hand once again holding the teacup. "I think you might already have an idea of what exactly the law is, but regardless. To clarify, the law has basically two parts. One: to never get involved with the experiments, and two: to seek out the experimentation done by the humans and end them, destroying the documents and killing the subjects."

"Why?" Yuu asked, and Mika turned slightly to look at him, not needing an explanation from Krul to answer this question.

"To avoid precisely what happened: the vanquishment of humanity."

Krul nodded; Yuu creased his brows momentarily, but understanding soon came to him. In any case, Krul continued.

"We feed from humans, and we have nothing to do with the seraph; they ignore us for the most part. The best strategy is to stay away from them completely."

What she said made sense, but then Mika remembered a certain detail, and then once again things weren't adding up. "But that's not what you did."

And then everything froze.

He did not move and probably did not breathe either during that moment. It was only when Krul herself moved that things seemed to set back into motion. She practically dropped the teacup on the plate, the contact making a sharp clack—extremely loud for the otherwise silent room—and then she whipped her head back around in his direction. The fact that they were taller than her now and that she had to look up in order to make eye contact didn't diminish the menace of her stare in the slightest: it seemed to send daggers right through him. Yuu's now-strong grip over his hand being the only thing giving him the necessary strength not to bow down to her in apology.

"You're right. I did not destroy the last of the Hyakuya experiments. Because I have my reasons, and I hope you understand them." Her words had not one drop of venom, but it did not trick him into a feeling of stability, since her entire body language demanded submission. He didn't want to back down just yet though.

"What is it that you want? Don't you think we deserve to know what you want to do with us?"

She stood up and took a step closer, leaning down and holding up his chin. He resisted the urge to gulp. "You have no right to demand anything from me. I am your sire and I expect you to obey me. Are we clear?"

It was only after he nodded that she let go of him, straightened herself back up, turned, and walked away. Before she could leave though, she looked back at them. "I'll tell you my plans eventually. But only when the time comes. Until then..."

And she turned once again and left.

One week later and they were in an airplane on their way to Europe. Yuu was sitting by the window looking at the ocean down below, with Mika leaning over his shoulder. Granted they had flown already, but this was the first time that they were in an airplane going anywhere overseas. As a matter of fact, neither had ever been to the sea before, and so it was quite the experience. Of course, they had just left the country's boundaries, and Mika soon sat back and Yuu himself lost interest not long after. There wasn't much to see in the constant sea after all.

As fun as it was though, they weren't on vacation by any means, and they had almost thirteen hours of waiting ahead of them…things got boring pretty quickly, to say the least.

Luckily, they had been allowed to bring a few things with them, so most of the trip was spent with Yuu playing some games on a 3DS (one that he had found in an abandoned house around a year prior in surprisingly good condition) and Mika reading a book about the history of math. Yuu though he was crazy, but Mika swore it was actually quite interesting. And he did comment a few facts as he read, things that somehow managed to perk Yuu's interest, but no way Yuu was going to admit that.

But of course, his inquiries about more details, no matter how bored Yuu tried to sound, didn't fool Mika at all. He didn't mention it though, only sending him a sly smile as he gladly sated Yuu's curiosity. It was cute, really.

As time went by though, Mika started to feel uncomfortable, what with being trapped in such an enclosed space and being surrounded by several other vampires. He thought about killing some time by sleeping, but then again, he didn't want to let his guard down like that while they were all watching...

They hit the epitome of boredom a few hours later, only two hours from their arrival, when the window started to get foggy. Of course, because of the pressure and temperature regulating structure of the airplane, the humidity was very low, but there was still a bit of moisture building up, and their sharp sight didn't have any trouble seeing the small bits of ice crystals forming on the glass in intricate patterns. And so, they played tic-tac-toe on the glass window.

In contrast with the long travel and contradicting his expectations, from the moment that they landed things started to pick up quite fast.

Yuu felt a bit lost, what with the entire unfamiliar situation, the lack of vampires that they were actually used to and also vampires speaking an entirely different language…good thing they still majorly used Latin, and oh boy, wasn't he suddenly glad to be forced to perfect this language.

Of course, they had already gone over the details of the mission and he did pay attention thank-you-very-much, but actually doing it was a whole different matter. It was no average mission after all, even if their part specifically wasn't all that complicated. But thankfully he had Mika with him to help him figure it all out.

First, there was a—surprisingly quick—meeting, then they drove to the place where the lab was. It wasn't very far, only about forty minutes or so, which Yuu spent mostly looking out the window. There wasn't much to see actually, but he noticed dark rain clouds forming.

Once there, it only took a bit of organizing and waiting before they finally invaded. Simple as that.

A couple of minutes in and an annoyingly loud siren started ringing. One of the few good things about the apocalypse though was that everything was isolated, so they didn't have to worry about the world around them, only the problem straight ahead; and so the siren didn't make much difference really. Yuu and Mika specifically didn't need to worry as much even, since they didn't go in the first wave. Their job was more to collect and destroy data, while the first group was responsible for…clearing the path.

Not long afterwards, they were being ushered forward. Mika was actually the one to notice the movement first—while Yuu was spacing out—and so he took Yuu's hand and lead him down the path after the others. And even if Yuu felt that it was perhaps a bit too soon, he was already getting antsy while waiting, and so he didn't protest at all.

Mika, on the other hand, seemed quite serious. Despite the gentle grip that he had on Yuu, his other hand loomed over his sword, while he wore an almost cold and detached expression. It was only marred by the concern on his face, which Yuu wouldn't have noticed if he didn't know the other boy as well as he did.

Yuu was aware that the situation was less than ideal to inquire about his mental state, but ignoring his behavior just wouldn't do. So he stopped dead in his tracks, their linked hands near pushing Mika back with a cartoon-like lag, jostling him away from whatever thoughts that were going on inside his head.

"Yuu-chan. What's the problem?" Mika asked with widened eyes.

"No problem with me. I was actually going to ask you the exact same."

This only caused Mika to crease his brows even further. "There's nothing wrong. Really. Besides, this isn't an appropriate time."

Mika started to turn away and continue to walk, but Yuu pulled him back.

"I'm aware of that. But are you sure you are really okay?"

Mika looked straight at him this time, actually taking his time to hear him, and his concerned expression finally softened. "Yes, Yuu-chan. I'm okay." And then he pecked him on the cheek.

Yuu imagined a couple of ways that this small exchange would end, and a blushing mess wasn't one of them, but he accepted it anyway. He mumbled "okay" as he finally resumed walking alongside Mika.

Once they entered the building, it was as if all hell had broken loose. They avoided most of the conflict, easily finding their way towards the right direction through the line of bodies littering the ground. All the corpses scattered around this level were human, and most had clean cuts made by blades in strategic places, direct and to the point. Although there were a handful that looked to be in worse shape, with seemingly unnecessarily gory wounds and injuries, such as a body that was literally cut in half (even if Yuu couldn't find the bottom)…Yuu couldn't help but wonder with morbid curiosity what exactly went down to cause this precise display.

He didn't dwell much on these thoughts though; he put in extra effort to stay focused as soon as the wonder died down, paying attention to the task at hand and not his surroundings—much less the scent of blood impregnating the entire place from every crevice.

As it turned out, the building had five underground levels. The further they went, the more empty it seemed in terms of furniture, even if the amount of bodies just kept piling up.

When they approached the last level, they heard screams. There was still fighting going on then. As they left the stairs, the full potency of the cacophony of sounds hit them. The gun shots; the clink of metal; the screams; the rushed footsteps: the heavy breathing and the quick heartbeats.

They stood planted in place as they stared at the door at the end of the hall, where the rest of the fight seemed to take place, even if the place was quickly growing quiet. And as he watched the door, illuminated by an eerie bluish-green light which leaked into the hall— the dust making the light beams look like mist, while twisted shadows danced on the glass door—Yuu suddenly noticed something out of place. A sound, so, so clos—

"Watch out!" Yuu was suddenly pushed to the side, the sound of Mika's yell ringing in his ear as well as the gunshot. A bullet crossed the air practically in slow motion just before his eyes. And then—

Yuu whipped around just in time to see the man grunt in pain as he fell to the ground. The gun in his hand slipped out of his grasp and a pool of blood quickly formed around his stomach, easily dying his pristine lab coat in a vicious red.

His blood also stained the blade of Mika's sword.

Yuu stared with wide eyes and gaping mouth at the man, the blade, and then Mika. And the man again—his heart still beating but not for long—and once more at Mika, settling on him. Mika turned around to look at him, his expression only mildly concerned.

"Are you okay?"

Yuu finally shook off his trance. "Uh, yeah. But I bet he's not," he said while gesturing towards the man. And what an understatement. Nice going, idiot.

Mika glanced once more at the man. "Yeah." He just—flicked the blood off his sword, promptly sheathing it afterwards.

Behind them, the noise had died down, the only thing that he could hear being the shuffling of papers and stuff. Mika once more took the lead. Yuu glanced one last time at the man, mumbling "uh, okay" before finally following Mika towards the room.

His answer came a bit too late for what was socially accepted in a conversation, but then again, was he really making small talk about...well, maybe "murder" was a strong word, like, Mika only attacked him after he tried to shoot them. But even if that wasn't really the case, it's not like it was personal. That's…that's probably just how things were.

Ahead of him, Mika said nothing else about the incident, and so neither did Yuu.

Inside the room, more bodies laid lifeless on the floor, this time with the occasional vampire looming over them and drinking their blood. Yuu just ignored them. Instead, he looked around, finding one table in particular that was covered with files all over it. He picked one up—one that read "general control" on the cover—and flipped it open, skimming through the pages as curiosity got the best of him.

There was one page with a chart which listed several names and their serial numbers, as well as another column with some information that he couldn't figure out. The next three pages had some huge blocks of text that Yuu promptly ignored. After that there was a profile page of sorts, a subject name—a boy—with a picture on the side and a small chart containing a few pieces of information, as well as a few notes scribbled by hand on the bottom. After that there were several similar pages, but with different kids.

He closed the folder and put it back on the table, reading the name of the other files. Most of them had the name of the subjects; Yuu picked one up. Its content was slightly different; it was all about this one kid, but in much more detail. It had some DNA data, experiment control information, dosage information, and—Yuu turned another page, finding several pictures clipped on the back.

There were other profile photos with dates written on the bottom. The kid looked healthier in the first ones, but as it progressed, she looked more and more sick, eyes sunken with dark bags, skin pale and thin...she was so thin. There were other pictures too, these ones being only of parts of the body, like arms and back, showing some sort of injuries. Yuu turned one of these pictures around, finding notes written on the back. "Side effect of serum B13"; in another one "allergic reaction to bm.A02."

He turned the last page, finding a mostly blank page, except for a few last notes, including…"Subject incapacitated."

Yuu closed the folder shut and dropped it on the table. He breathed in, not realizing that he had been holding his breath. He raised his hand, trying to reach out but finding only thin air.

"Mi—" He cut himself off mid-sentence—or rather mid-word—when he turned around and found that Mika was not there. He knit together his brows in confusion. Where would he be?

He didn't have to look around much though, quickly finding Mika standing a few meters ahead. "Oh, there you are," Yuu said as he made his way towards him. "Hey, what are you doing?" he inquired, noticing how Mika just seemed to look straight ahead, his expression showing clear distress. And so he looked in the same direction and—

"Oh, fuck."

Right in front of them there was a cylindrical tank filled with water, and inside it was…someone? Yuu couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, but the gender hardly mattered. They were extremely thin, the ribs visible from under the skin, which looked almost greyish. Where the arms were supposed to be, instead there were wings; but they looked atrophied and had spots of missing feathers, and the place where the wings joined the torso looked wrong, unnatural, almost as if they had been stitched together, although Yuu had no idea about the veracity of his thoughts.

He stared at the kid with horrified shock. So…that was supposed to be a seraph…?

"P-Please…" Yuu jumped at the sound. The voice was raspy and hardly human, thin and barely carrying through the mask and the tank, but Yuu soon realized that it did indeed come from the "person" in front of them. "Kill me...Mr. Vampire. Kill me….This hideous thing that I became."

And then Yuu felt his hand being grabbed. The hold that Mika had on him was strong, but he did not complain. Instead, he moved to leave the spot and walk until the tank was out of sight, even though he himself had trouble breaking contact with it.

They resumed their task after that, boxing what they were told to and ignoring, only a few minutes later, the sound of glass breaking, running water, and a muffled cry.

By the time they left, it was raining.

[Several hours later they were on their way back to Japan, and their trip back was pretty much the same as it was before, even if the mood was much more somber this time.

It was the first time that they spent two-days straight awake.

They didn't feel tired at all, nor did they notice any differences.

Yuu pressed his head against the cold window and waited for...something.]


	7. Life in the vivid dream p2

a/n: Hey! Here's the second half! (one day late, but wow isn't it a fast update? haha) Anyway, with this I end the first arc. Hope you all enjoy it! I have no idea when I'm gonna post again, just saying, but oh boy, am I excited to write it .

"Ferid?" Crowley called as he opened the front double doors of the mansion, which was devoid of children for the moment.

"Here."

Crowley started in the direction the voice came from, walking down the hall and heading towards a specific door. The bedroom was empty, but there was a second door there. "Ferid-kun…" he started saying as he entered the room, finding Ferid in the bathtub; the water was filled with bubbles from a bath bomb, covering the submerged parts of his body. He held a wine glass, although the content definitely wasn't wine. "...did you call me?"

"Ah, Crowley-kun." He practically purred the name, his typical smirk right in place. "I'm glad you could make it here so soon."

"But of course. Despite recent developments, I'm really not as busy as you might think."

Ferid nodded in response, setting the glass down and leaning over the ledge of the bathtub. "Right. And isn't that marvelous? After all, I have a little favor to ask you."

Crowley leaned back on the wall and folded his arms. "Hm...does it have anything to do with that little 'ally' of yours?" he said with a raised brow, his lips tugging to the side, the small teasing coming from him causing Ferid's smile to widen.

"You could say so. Actually, yes. I wanted you to give him a letter. Poor thing must be getting impatient; four years is a relatively long time for a human after all," he finished with a snicker.

"A letter." Crowley ignored the last comment, directing the conversation back to the point.

"Mm-hm. There's already a place and time agreed on, so you just have to meet him there and give it to him. I mean"—Ferid raised his hand, pulling his hair back over his shoulder—"I would do it myself, but I'll be a bit busy at the time." And he picked up his glass once more, taking a sip of the blood.

"Right. And where is this letter…?" Crowley pulled away from the wall, standing up straight and unfolding his arms.

Ferid made a vague gesture with his hand towards the door. "Second drawer."

Crowley turned around and went back to the other room, walking towards the cabinet. He found what he was looking for easily enough. Letter in hand, he went back to the bathroom while examining the envelope.

"And may I ask what it is about?"

"Let's just say that I found the perfect opportunity to hand him the subject that he so _desperately_ craved."

Crowley looked up from the letter and back at Ferid. "So you are telling him about the attack on Shinjuku."

Ferid closed his eyes and waved his hand dismissively. "Details, details. I'm only telling him what he needs to know. So now things can finally move on." And then he locked eyes with him, the smirk back in its full glory. "Can you do this for me?"

Crowley rolled his eyes, a small smile of his own on his face. "I can't believe you still have to ask."

"So. Tomorrow we are officially off on a mission to fight humans. How do you feel about it?" Yuu leaned over one leg, while the other dangled off the edge of the bridge they were currently sitting on.

Mika himself sat cross-legged, looking down at the human districts, made small from the distance. Here, in the heart of Sanguinem, it was hard to believe that it had already been a year since that mission. And now he was faced with the prospect of going on another one...he took in a deep breath, allowing his lungs to expand fully before contracting. "Well. It's actually more against the army rather than humanity itself."

Yuu turned his head around to look at him. "Kind of, maybe. Still. Doesn't it bother you?"

Mika pondered the question. "A bit? I don't know. I mean, there are things that bother me about this whole arrangement, but...well." He brought a hand to his lips, biting on his nail as he thought, sighing eventually. "...They brought it upon themselves, really." He looked at Yuu, finally meeting his gaze. "Does it bother you?"

Yuu bit his lip—a bad idea. "Actually, yes. It does." He turned back around to the district down below, not wanting to look at Mika's eyes at the moment. "I mean, maybe it's silly of me. I know what stupid shit they're doing, and the Moon Demon Company is kinda fucked up too but—"

"Hey, Yuu-chan." Mika put a hand on his shoulder, his voice sweet, arresting his rambling. He once more met his gaze; he was smiling gently back at him. "Yuu-chan, you don't need to justify yourself; your empathy towards the humans is valid. Actually, if anything…" And as his beautiful smile faltered, Yuu knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Mika. You're not blaming yourself or anything, are you?"

Mika's brows were furrowed and his lips curved into a frown. Of course he was.

"It's just…been such a long time, longing for this pain to stop…I wonder sometimes if I have detached too much from myself."

Yuu pulled up his leg and switched his position in order to get closer to Mika, circling one arm around his torso and putting his other hand on his head, pulling him closer. Mika did not protest; in fact, he clung to him, burying his face in the crook of his neck. "You silly. You're still you. And I love you, you hear me?" And he leaned away from Mika just enough to look him in the eye, waiting for him to nod in acknowledgement.

Finally, the smile was back on his lips. "Yuu-chan, you're adorable."

Yuu shook his head. "No, you are."

"Uh-uh." And then Mika leaned forward and placed a quick, chaste kiss over his lips. "You are."

"Oh my God, I didn't know vampires were physically capable of being that sappy." Mika turned his head around and Yuu moved his gaze from him to the boy now leaning over the ledge just beside them.

"Hi, Ayumu-san. What are you doing here?" Mika asked him.

The seventeen-year-old boy was tall, taller than them, but worryingly thin thanks to the malnutrition. They didn't see him much, but when they did, he was very friendly and usually smiling. Today was no exception.

"Me? I was just leaving the blood center, you know." Yuu's eye twitched slightly at the mention, but he otherwise ignored the implication. "The real question though," Ayumu continued, unfazed, "is what _you_ are doing here. I mean, you barely come around here, unless it's on patrol, as far as I know."

Yuu shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we were feeling...nostalgic? I don't know. Something."

Mika sighed, sitting up straight. "Something indeed." Yuu followed his movements as he changed position and once more looked down. He was biting his lip. Yuu's stare got lost for a few seconds before he deviated from Mika and looked at the district below.

Everything looked the same from four years ago...except, not really. Maybe it wasn't the district that had changed, however. But for some reason, he had this sensation—as if something big was going to happen. "I don't know, but...I kind of have this feeling of foreboding."

He felt both gazes turning back to him. He looked back to the left, glancing at Ayumu, who for once looked more serious, before meeting Mika's eyes.

Mika stared back at him with narrowed eyes. "Yuu-chan…" He raised a single eyebrow, his lips quirking to the side. "Foreboding. Did you just learn that word today?"

Ayumu snickered beside them, and Yuu grunted. "Seriously?"

"Okay, okay. I'm going now by the way," Ayumu said amidst giggles, thankfully diverting the attention from Mika's _lovely_ joke. "Bye, guys." He waved as he turned around, the movement capturing the light right on the chain of the locket peeking out from under his shirt, causing it to shine for a split second.

"Bye," Yuu answered, and Mika waved back.

As soon as the boy's retreating back vanished around the corner, Mika turned back at him. His smile now was softer, more sincere, and he saw adoration in his eyes—a look that was reflected on Yuu's own face.

"So…" Mika spoke, and the way he quirked his lips caused Yuu to catch his breath. "Do you want to leave now too? We still have a few hours to ourselves before we have to leave…"

A strong feeling of happiness and contentment bubbled up inside Yuu: the kind that made you want to laugh for no reason whatsoever. "Let's."

He jumped off the bridge railing and grabbed Mika, putting him back on the ground, both giggling in the process. He took his hand and pulled him forward, practically skipping on their way and ignoring the weird looks that they got from others.

It didn't matter; nothing mattered. Not right now. He was busy: busy adoring this beautiful boy holding his hand.

And he would take his time now to properly do so.

They were still laughing when they reached their room. Mika tried to open the door, but Yuu came up from behind him and left a trail of feather-light kisses on his neck, making him laugh more in the process.

Finally inside, Mika pulled Yuu in and closed the door behind them. That out of the way, he waltzed around and wrapped his arms around Yuu's neck, leaning forward. Their lips met in a passionate kiss, and Mika melted into it. And suddenly Mika was being raised from the ground, Yuu picking him up and causing a surprised yelp to escape his lips. He still held onto Yuu though.

They only broke the kiss when Yuu dropped him on the bed. Mika giggled as he bounced on the bed, but ultimately remained there, only raising his head a bit in order to watch as Yuu struggled to take off the cape.

"Stupid, fancy cape. Why the ribbons." Mika giggled again at Yuu's frustration.

The frustration dripped away from Yuu at the sound. Mika's giggles sounded like tiny bells in his ears. He was so adorable like this. But then Mika sat up and Yuu remembered what he was doing, and once the cape was dealt with, he took off the coat, but not without some struggle there as well. Yuu was suddenly very clumsy, it seemed.

He dropped everything on the floor, not caring at all. He took a step forward only to pause when Mika spoke up. "Don't forget the boots." Mika was smirking, one leg crossed over the other. His boots were discarded beside the bed, placed there deliberately instead of just tossed around as Yuu was in the process of doing.

Yuu grunted and started struggling once more.

"Do you want a little help?" Mika ironically (but not completely) asked, and Yuu swore he could hear the smirk in his voice.

He looked up into his eyes—yep, he was still smirking—and said with a deadpan face, "Thanks. But I can manage."

Mika snickered, rolling his eyes with a smile still on his lips.

The boots were extra as hell to take off, but Yuu managed eventually. Once it was done, Yuu climbed onto the bed, crawling right over Mika, who laid back down as he did so, their eyes meeting all the while.

Yuu looked down at Mika, taking notice of the spark in his eyes and his smile. That smile...it was sweet enough to cause cavities. His golden locks were perfectly disheveled and framed his face like a halo. That image alone was enough to take Yuu's breath away—metaphorically speaking, that is. But still.

Mika tilted his head slightly to the side, squinting his eyes quizzically. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yuu was smiling so much it was a wonder that it didn't hurt. "Looking like what?" he asked innocently.

Mika pressed his lips together, creasing his brows. "...Like…"

"Like you're the most beautiful thing in the entire world?" Yuu finished for him, unable to contain himself any longer.

The way Mika turned a bright shade of red made it all worthwhile.

Yuu reached for his face, moving a strand of hair away from Mika's deep blue eyes, his hand staying there as he played with his hair. Mika was still a blushing mess, and he was just so goddamn adorable that Yuu couldn't control himself.

He leaned down and softly kissed his velvet lips. The kiss was chaste, but there were just so many feelings bubbling inside his chest that he desperately wanted to transmit…Mika kissed him back with just as much love, smiling into the kiss.

It was deep in its nature, but relatively quick, and then Yuu was leaning back onto him, their foreheads touching. Yuu was still playing with Mika's hair, and Mika raised his hand to caress Yuu's cheek.

Mika was content to be close to Yuu like this, so much so that his heart might burst with joy, but...he still had a couple of uninvited thoughts haunting him, even after Yuu tried to comfort him not long ago.

Yuu noticed his apparently sudden change of emotions though and raised a brow questioningly. Mika sighed, deciding to speak up. "Yuu-chan…" But the words seemed to get choked up on his throat.

"Yeah?" Yuu softly prompted, and the worry plastered on his face made Mika feel almost embarrassed. Yuu always seemed to be trying to comfort him; he decided to at least make an effort for his sake.

"Do...do you think that we"— _I_ —"changed too much?" _Strayed too far away from my humanity?_

Mika's voice broke a bit in the end, and it made Yuu's heart ache to see his pain.

"...Yes." Yuu answered after a deliberate moment of thinking, but the way that Mika's eyes almost imperceptibly widened made him add quickly "But that's not necessarily a bad thing! Like..." After a few more beats of rapid-fire thought, he said the first thing that crossed his mind. "I was a pain when I was a kid—"

For a blessed moment, Mika's lips quirked upward; with a tad bit of mirth, he said, "Was?"

" _Listen_ —" Yuu feigned annoyance, but he would be damned if he could be annoyed when Mika was _giggling_ at him. Yuu couldn't hold it back and smiled. "Point is. If I were still the same person from four years ago, I doubt I would have you pinned down right now. Kid me was a stuck-up idiot."

Mika smiled more broadly then, the smile reaching his eyes. "Yeah. Now you are _my_ idiot."

"H-Hey—" And then Mika was leaning forward and kissing him again; just a quick peck before he laid back down.

Yuu smiled at him softly. "Besides...because you asked that, because you are concerned about it...it proves that you are way better than you give yourself credit for."

And with that, Yuu legitimately surprised Mika. His eyes widened as the words sank in: Yuu saw right through him.

"Yuu-ch—"

And then it was Yuu's turn to silence Mika with a kiss, this time deeper than before. And when Yuu broke the contact, Mika practically whined at the loss. "Shh, no more worrying right now. Are we clear?" And when Mika enthusiastically nodded in agreement, Yuu smiled and once more lunged forward.

The kiss started to get deeper—far deeper than before. Mika circled his arms around Yuu's neck while Yuu wrapped his arms around him, sitting up and pulling Mika along with him. They then switched positions so that instead of Yuu sitting over Mika, they were both kneeling in front of each other.

Mika moved one of his hands in order to cup Yuu's face, the other gripping his shirt. They were leaving open-mouthed kisses—an uncoordinated dance of tongue and teeth—when Yuu started to fumble with his cape. Mika noticed his struggle, but let him do the job, only helping him to take off the sleeves of the coat.

It was only when Yuu was trying to unbutton his shirt that it got to him. He detached from Mika, a trail of saliva still connecting their mouths. He stared at the buttons with animosity, his brows creased and his lips curved into a frown. "Stupid tiny buttons."

All in all, Yuu was adorable. Mika snickered, not even mad that Yuu had to break the kiss because of his inability to unbutton his shirt, and so he stared at him, a tiny smirk and a fang peeking out, biting into his lips.

Yuu looked up at the sound, his eyes quickly falling to Mika's lips. He squinted his eyes. "How." He didn't even ask it with the intonation of a question; he said the word as if it were self-explanatory.

Mika raised a brow but was still smiling. "How what? Yuu-chan, you gotta be a bit more specific." He was slightly confused, but not any less amused.

"How you don't pierce yourself like this—biting your lip."

And in that moment Mika had a realization. He started to laugh uncontrollably; it was something that Yuu probably had thought about for a _very_ long time.

"Hey, what's so funny?" And now Mika could tell that Yuu was getting annoyed.

Ignoring his frustrated question, he just laughed more until an idea crossed his mind. "Oh, but I _do_ pierce myself." And he was once again smirking.

"No, you don't." And oh, Yuu was so adorably oblivious that it was almost unfair how easy it was to get to him.

"Yes, I do. And as a matter of fact"—and then Mika bit into his own lips, a scarlet drop leaking from the pinprick—"I just did."

Yuu's eyes went comically wide remarkably fast; the sugary scent invaded his senses, making his mouth start to fill up with venom. And then they were kissing again, and he was sucking into Mika's lips while they were both moaning.

It was good, so good, but not nearly enough. The only problem was that the minimum skill that Yuu still had went to hell at that moment, and small bits of venom that entered Mika's system started to cloud his mind.

Mika was still more apt to finish the task though, and so he did the favor of unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off. Once it was gone, Yuu had to pause once more, if only just to bask in his beauty.

And _there._ He had that look again in his eyes, and Mika suddenly felt extremely self-conscious. He darted his eyes to the side, hunching his shoulders. It was silly, really. They had seen each other naked several times, and it wasn't like he and Yuu hadn't a thing going on for a while now, but he got extremely awkward under the weight of his stare. He moved his hands in an attempt to cover himself, but Yuu grabbed his hands as he did so, interlacing their fingers. Mika looked back into his emerald eyes.

"Don't. You don't need to feel embarrassed, Mika. You're beautiful." His eyes were overflowing with sincerity, and it made Mika want to believe it.

Yuu leaned once more into him, laying a soft kiss onto his lips. Then his head lowered, and Yuu was leaving a trail of kisses all over him. Mika untangled their hands in order to hug Yuu and thread his fingers into his hair while Yuu was holding onto his lower back.

And then Yuu _licked_ his neck and Mika shuddered in anticipation. By then Yuu was sucking into his skin, giving Mika goosebumps. And when Yuu sucked again, this time harder, Mika pulled his hair, getting more and more impatient.

And finally, when it started to get too overwhelming for Mika, Yuu opened his mouth and Mika could feel the tip of his fang grasping at the skin, not yet piercing.

"Dammit, Yuu-chan. Just bite already."

Yuu snickered; he finally had the upper hand. "Do you want me to bite?"

Mika huffed indignantly, because Yuu was leaning back, and _he shouldn't_. " _Yeah_." And he made sure to show his frustration, since he knew that Yuu was too weak to keep it going for long.

Yuu was looking Mika in the eyes, a grin on his face and a mouth way too far from his neck. "And what do you say?"

Mika just stared at him with a deadpan face. "Now."

Yuu pouted. "Damn, Mika. Can't you play?"

Mika rolled his eyes, his lips curving up. "Yeah. I'll play, you'll see."

"Alright, alright." Yuu sighed in defeat, kissing Mika on the lips apologetically before finally going back to what he should be doing.

Yuu held him tightly, licking his neck in preparation, and yep, Mika's mind was still hazy with the heat of the moment, despite the short interruption. And when he felt the tip of his fangs in his skin once more, he barely had to wait until they pierced his flesh.

Mika moaned as Yuu sucked his blood, his venom invading his system and clouding his senses, numbing him to anything but the pleasure.

Mika's blood was so ridiculously saccharine; Yuu was completely addicted, and he didn't want to stop. He drank more and more, Mika making beautiful sounds all the while, and Yuu could swear that Mika was practically _purring_.

Yuu only stopped when his desire to kiss the beautiful blond surpassed his desire to drink his blood. And so he detached from him, lapping up the trail of blood leaking from the fast-healing wound.

He wasted no time in meeting with Mika's mouth once again, the blond kissing him just as enthusiastically. At this point they were way clumsier than before, and Yuu scraped his tongue on Mika's fang, causing the blood to flow inside their mouths.

Mika moaned when he tasted Yuu's blood, and he sucked on his tongue passionately, trying to get as much blood as he could. It did not last long though since the wound healed unfairly fast.

Mika tried to detach himself from Yuu in order to speak. "Yuu-chan—" But Yuu was right back at him in an instant, and he really could not complain. "I—" He tried to speak in between kisses, but damn was it hard to concentrate while Yuu was so eagerly kissing him.

But despite how much he enjoyed the kisses, Mika really, really wanted to say something. And so, putting all his effort into the task, he used both hands, which had been cupping Yuu's cheeks, to actually hold him back for a moment.

"I want more," he finally managed.

Bloody kisses. They weren't uncommon. In fact, Mika had already tasted Yuu's blood through them before. The thing was, only Yuu had actually bit him until this moment. The biting itself wasn't something very recurring actually; besides the two times where Yuu had lost blood and Mika eagerly provided him more, it only happened twice more. Probably because as time went by and they got increasingly more unsatisfied from Krul's blood, the sad truth was that Mika's blood simply wasn't enough to satisfy Yuu's thirst. But it was true that the pleasure they got from it was still something they both craved.

Now, it wasn't like Mika was unsatisfied with the arrangement. No, he was more than happy to let Yuu drink his blood as his venom wonderfully intoxicated him. But he couldn't deny the nagging feeling of curiosity that had been blooming inside him as of late. And so he decided that there was no time better than the present to voice his feelings.

As the words sank in, Yuu's eyes widened; he was far too distracted by Mika's words to kiss him again. Clearly Yuu hadn't thought of the prospect of being bitten before, but now that the idea had been planted in his head...damn, did he want to try this out.

Yuu nodded avidly, his mouth agape in a way that was extremely cute.

Mika snickered. He rubbed his thumb on Yuu's cheeks in a caress and lightly kissed his lips. Yuu leaned forward in response, but Mika leaned back away, lowering his hands from his face to his shirt, starting to unbutton it.

He was not as far gone as he had been moments before, which would come in handy for a situation like this. Well, of course the venom was still acting, leaving him slightly tipsy, but thankfully that wouldn't be much of a problem. As he unbuttoned Yuu's shirt, his movements were deliberate, unhurried; thankfully, it made it easier to concentrate.

Yuu was eager, and as he noticed Mika's excruciatingly slow pace, he started to get impatient. But it was only when a grunt escaped him that he realized his mistake. He had just given Mika what he wanted, and now there was no way he was living it down.  
Mika completely stopped what he had been doing, causing Yuu to look at him. He was staring back at him with his damn gorgeous cat-like eyes, but Yuu knew that behind that smirk he was just as desperate as him. Probably. Maybe.  
"Who told you to stop?" Yuu inquired in an attempt to spur him on since _how dare he stop when there were only two buttons to go?_

Mika's smirk only widened at that. "Well, I'm just playing your game. Don't you like it?"

Yuu sincerely, from the bottom of his heart, grunted in frustration. He was never, ever again, doing anything else anymore.

Mika seemed satisfied with his response though, since he finished unbuttoning the remaining buttons. Once it was done, however, Mika slipped his hands inside Yuu's shirt, lazily sliding his hands around his shoulders and down his back, all of it in order to take his shirt off in the slowest and hottest possible way. And oh, wherever his delicate hands touched, Yuu's skin seemed to go aflame, and by the time he was done, Yuu's face was equally hot.

Mika was openly staring at him, at his slender but defined form, and he licked his lips, the movement certainly not passing unnoticed by Yuu. And then Mika looked up at him and, despite his previous bold demeanor, the look on his face made him seem so... _vulnerable_.

Yuu's heart squeezed, and at that moment he certainly, undoubtedly died.

Mika's hands were back on his cheeks, and he kissed Yuu again, slowly, deeply, as Yuu circled his arms around Mika, embracing him. Mika broke the kiss but did not get away, touching their foreheads together instead. For a moment, the only sound in the room was their (relatively) accelerated heartbeats. And then Mika glanced up, locking his eyes with Yuu. As he did so, a cute, devious smile made its way to his lips.

Mika's hands moved from his cheeks to the back of his neck, one of them idly tangling his index finger into his hair. Yuu braced himself as Mika leaned forward and whispered in his ear.

"I've been wanting to taste Yuu-chan like this for so long."

Yuu squirmed, his bones turning to mush, and if he hadn't been frozen still at that moment, he certainly would have had trouble keeping himself upright.

Mika's hands descended once more, going lower and lower until he was holding onto his lower back, fingers slightly slipping under the hem of his pants. But Yuu ignored this fact, since Mika's head also lowered towards his neck.

At first, Mika simply kissed his neck, causing a shudder to travel down Yuu's spine. But then, with little to no pretense, Mika sank his fangs into his neck.

Mika closed his hand into fists and Yuu tightened his embrace. The pinprick of Mika's needle-sharp fangs stung for only a second before his venom started to take effect, Yuu's mind quickly becoming misty; the only thing that got past the haze was the potent feeling of pleasure. There was something weirdly exhilarating about having his life force sucked right out of him.

Yuu's luscious blood flowed right into Mika's mouth, the sheer quantity nigh-intoxicating. Mika eagerly drank the blood, the sensation vastly superior than the teasing he got from the bloody kiss, and at that moment he could no longer deny the thrill of the bite. And the fact that he finally had Yuu like this made him unexplainably giddy.

When Mika finally pulled back, swiping his tongue on the remaining drops of blood, he leaned back and stared at Yuu. He couldn't contain the smile, and it almost made him embarrassed.

Yuu's gaze fell back onto Mika, who had his shoulders hunched over and a smile so adorable and innocent, contrasting greatly with the thin trail of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. Yuu gulped and stared, because it was his blood, and it was just so _hot_.

The next thing he knew, he was kissing Mika again. Hard. It was totally messy; Yuu could taste his own blood mixed up with saliva and venom—the later ironically being mostly Yuu's fault. Yuu moved his hands, exploring every inch of Mika's exposed skin, until he eventually ran them down Mika's arm and gently captured his hands, interlacing their fingers together.

"Hey, Mika," Yuu said, moving away just the necessary amount to speak.

"Hm?"

"Bite me again."

Mika simultaneously widened his eyes and furrowed his brows, leaning back to have a clear view of Yuu and— _how the heck did he say something like that with a straight face?_

And that's exactly what he proceeded to ask. Yuu just rolled his eyes though. "C'mon Mika, just bite me already, I know you're not exactly opposed to the idea. Or would you prefer if I bit you instead?"

"E-eh? What are y—whaa?!" Mika was stuttering and just was a general blushing mess. He felt as if he were cornered in conversational chess, if such a thing existed—but even if it did, he doubted Yuu would be able to win such thing intentionally...but still.

Upon the lack of a coherent answer, Yuu pressed his lips together, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Right." And then he untangled one of his hands from Mika's. He raised his hand and Mika stared with widened eyes as he unsheathed a claw and made a clean cut onto his own neck, the blood immediately starting to pour out of it.

Mika squinted his eyes. Cheating or not, Yuu just won the metaphorical game of chess.

"I hate you."

"No you don't!" And he said it with the most annoyingly adorable sing-song voice.

Just because of that Mika bit a tad bit harder than actually necessary, causing Yuu to gasp. He couldn't complain; he literally asked for it after all...but he was right. Mika was nowhere near opposed to the idea.

Mika wasn't sure what exactly had brought on the request, even if he wouldn't put it past Yuu to simply ask something like this just for the heck of it. But, as Yuu untangled their hands that were still laced together, taking Mika's hand and bringing his wrist to his mouth, he discovered that Yuu did have an ulterior motive.

The moment in which Yuu's fangs sank into his wrist, something changed. Suddenly it wasn't just Yuu's blood filling him with ecstasy, it was his venom entering him as well, bringing that haze—which still hadn't completely evaporated—back in full force. But having both happening simultaneously, while having his own blood being sucked as well, somehow sensitized everything. It was entirely too overwhelming, but in the best ways. It was as if a fire had been lit inside him, and he felt somehow full, complete. It felt like bliss.

Yuu wasn't sure about what he was doing or what he had expected, but damn was he glad that he did it. Soon though, all coherent thought was promptly tossed out the window, the high hitting him wholly and intensely, clouding his mind completely to the world around him, shading anything that wasn't Mika. Conversely, he was suddenly hyper-aware of Mika, even if his awareness got blurry on the edges, making him unsure of where he ended and Mika began.

At some point they detached from each other, but neither was completely sure of when or how; the next thing they knew they were kissing again. They got lost in the kiss, switching positions at some point.

And then Mika was leaning over Yuu and they fell back onto the mattress, breaking the kiss. Yuu laid down on his back, Mika looming over him, his hair falling like a curtain around them—they were close, very close, their noses touching.

Mika then leaned down for one last kiss, chaste, but the longest single kiss so far.

Once their lips parted from each other, Mika raised his head, locking his eyes with Yuu's. Yuu's eyes were practically sparkling, and he wore a broad, silly smile. Mika's own smile was more subdued, but not any less sincere.

Both of Mika's forearms were propped on each side of Yuu's head, and he reached out a hand to mess with his raven, messy locks.

"Thank you."

Yuu furrowed his brows. "Thank you for what?"

Mika shrugged. "I don't know...for everything, for nothing, for just...being here with me, I guess."

Yuu huffed, a soft smile gracing his lips. "You silly. I'll always be with you. You won't get rid of me so easily."

Mika giggled. "You better not leave me then."

And then Mika got partially off of Yuu, changing his position in order to lay his head on his chest. Mika traced tiny circles with his fingers on Yuu's chest, while Yuu messed with his hair with one hand, the other one placed under his head.

After what could have been a few minutes or an entire hour, Mika spoke up.

"Yuu-chan...there's something...something where I still agree with kid me, you could say."

Yuu perked up at that. "Yeah? And what is it?"

Mika didn't answer right away. He counted three heartbeats—which had a fairly long time in between—before he spoke again.

"If I had the chance, I would run away from here. From the vampires, and humans, and all the conflicts."

Mika propped himself up, enough to look at Yuu in the eyes.

"Do you want to leave the world with me?"

There's a knock on the door.

Mika raised his head to look at the clock, grimacing at the time and holding back a grunt. Yuu had no such scruples.

Mika sat up and was about to get out of bed when he felt Yuu's hand holding his wrist. Mika looked back and rolled his eyes at the view: Yuu had his face still buried in the pillow. He ignored Yuu's wordless plea, standing up and easily disentangling himself from Yuu. He picked up his shirt, which was still tossed on the bed and slightly crumpled, and put it on as he walked to the door, buttoning up most of the buttons.

Mika opened the door and used all his strength not to slam it back shut as soon as he saw who the visitor was.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Apparently, Yuu decided to get out of bed after all.

"Oh my, what a way to greet me," Ferid said, although his tone and expression showed just how much he wasn't fazed by Yuu's words.

"What do you want?" Mika finally spoke, his voice cold and his expression neutral.

Instead of answering his question, Ferid leaned on the doorframe, his gaze traveling from Mika to a point behind him, his smirk only widening. "I see you had a lot of fun last night."

Mika turned around, finding Yuu standing beside the bed, shirt on but completely unbuttoned; his hair was tousled while the bed itself was somewhat rumpled as well. It didn't matter though. It was their business and it was early, which meant that they still had some free time, time that Ferid was ruining with his presence.

Mika turned back around to face Ferid, his expression now betraying more of his annoyance than before. "We are not late; in fact, we still have two hours before having to meet in the hangar. Why did you decide to pester us right now?"

"Actually"—Ferid leaned away from the doorframe, his hand going down to his hips—"I do have a reason to be here."

Mika raised a single brow, not entirely convinced. "And what reason would that be?"

"You see, there's still a few details about the mission that need to be clarified—"

" _No_. Said mission should begin in _two_ hours. We already went through everything." Mika stared at Ferid with narrowed eyes. This was starting to look fishy.

"Look." Ferid brought his hands together, taking a more straight and serious stance. "This is not the same thing. What I need to discuss is actually part of a...how to put it? A secret side mission. Not common knowledge—"

"Just—just get straight to the point." By then Mika was simply tired.

"Right. There's this select group that will be tasked to retrieve a few things while mostly everyone is distracted on the battlefield."

Mika bit the inside of his cheek, hesitant to believe him but starting to have an idea of what it might be. "...I take it it's not a very orthodox mission."

"It's not," Ferid confirmed.

"And…" Mika thought for a moment, trying to piece together the information. "...does it have anything to do with Krul?"

For a split second, an emotion that Mika couldn't quite decipher crossed Ferid's face, but as abruptly as it appeared, it was gone. "Yes, it does, as a matter of fact."

Mika sighed. He wouldn't put it past her to do something like that. "Alright. Then what exactly is it about?"

And then Ferid's expression twisted into something like… pity…? Even if it looked more theatrical than sincere. "Oh, actually, I need just Yuuichirou."

Mika's eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

"What?!" _Good to know that Yuu-chan was just as perplexed._ By then he was just behind Mika, his shirt buttoned up. "What do you mean you just need me? Why would you even need me, really—"

Ferid raised a hand in a gesture to quiet him. The bastard looked amused.

"The reason why I need you is because Mika dear would be of more use on the battlefield."

Mika had an idea of what Ferid was hinting at, and couldn't really deny it...but was it really a good idea to bring Yuu alone to whatever it was…? Well, he wouldn't actually be _alone_ per say, and maybe, _perhaps_ , Mika was just overthinking. It's not like Yuu was hopeless without him, no, he was more than capable of course so—

Mika sighed. Maybe he should give Yuu a bit more credit. Even if he still wasn't happy with it…

"No, no, no-no-no. No. Look, if you need me that bad, you should bring Mi—" Yuu started to protest, and Mika really appreciated the fact, but...

"Yuu-chan." And the way he said it made Yuu stop, looking at him questioningly. "Look, maybe you should go…"

Yuu looked at him with the most incredulous expression, as if asking him if he were crazy. Mika could relate to the sentiment.

"Yes, listen to Mika." Ferid dared to say something, and Mika glanced back at him with murderous intent. If he opened his mouth again, Mika would take it back forbid him to take Yuu out of his sight.

Ferid thankfully seemed to understand the message and threw his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

Mika sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time. "Where do you want to meet for that briefing to go over these details or whatever?" Mika asked impatiently.

"Well, in the smaller meeting room in the east wing, but—"

"Okay, good, you can go, Yuu will meet you there in ten," he said in a rush as he practically closed the door in Ferid's face. Ferid seemed taken aback and tried to fight it, but Mika just pushed harder. "Don't wait for him here!"

And the door was closed. A few silent seconds later, in which both Ferid and Yuu seemed to take in what just happened, Mika heard Ferid's footsteps as he walked away.

Once he was out of earshot, he finally turned to Yuu, who looked to have a very confused and slightly frustrated mien. "What the hell was that about?"

"Look, I just...I just think that it might be a good thing—"

"What? That they separate us?" Oh, he sounded hurt, almost...betrayed even.

At that moment, Mika almost backed down, gave up, and said it was all a fever dream, but—

"I—I'm not happy with it either, but maybe being stuck together all the time isn't that good, like—"

"Oh, so everything that we talked about last night wasn't exactly true."

It might not have been literal, but at that moment Mika felt as if there weren't enough air, as if he were suffocating. And suddenly his legs couldn't support himself anymore; he faltered, and he might as well have fallen to his knees if Yuu hadn't held him tightly by his arms.

"Mika? Oh God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" He sounded frantic, all the anger seeming to slip away, worry taking its place.

Mika slumped over Yuu, clinging to his shirt and burying his face in his shoulder.

"Mika, are you okay?" Yuu embraced him tightly.

"I—of course it was true. Everything. If I need to live for eternity, I really would relish spending it with you. I just want you, you, you, every time, all the time." He backed up in order to look into Yuu's eyes. "Yuu-chan, you're literally my only reason to live, and I want you so bad it scares me." Yuu blinked in surprise and Mika looked away, suddenly afraid of his response. "I just think...sometimes I feel like I'm being unfair with you. And...maybe it would be better for the both of us if we give ourselves some space for a while."

And then Yuu had both his hands on his face, making him turn to look at him again.

"Mika. You're not being unfair. I can tell you for a fact that I feel the exact same. I—" And it was his turn to look away, even if it was only for a fleeting second. "I overreacted. I'm sorry; the last thing that I wanted was to hurt you...and I think I might just have proved to you that you do have a point."

Mika furrowed his brows, staring at Yuu as he took a deep, unnecessary breath. "Okay, I'm doing it." Mika blinked, the words not immediately clicking. "I'm going on this mission or whatever."

"Ah, are you sure? I mean, if it really makes you that upset—" Mika should be happy that Yuu agreed with him in the end, but suddenly he wasn't so sure.

"Mika, it's okay. It will be okay. I'll come back to you."

Mika nodded, unsure at first, but then he smiled back at Yuu. He really needed to have more faith in him after all.

Yuu smiled too, right before leaning forward to kiss him.

[Two hours later when everyone was in the hangar getting everything ready, Lacus wondered with René where Mika and Yuu had gotten to, since in the end they were, in fact, slightly late.

It might or might not have had something to do with the fact that they were making out in the corner.]


	8. Hope of Morning

a/n: heyo, this chap is coming earlier than I thought haha and got a couple of things to say. First, this is the beginning of a new arc, the Shinjuku arc. Because of that the focus will go to the humans, but Mika and Yuu _will_ still have povs, since things will pick up quickly from now on, even though this chap is more of a backstory sort of thing. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it, and enjoy Yoichi, this chapter is huge rip.

"Please, can't we just talk for a second?" Yoichi pleaded, exasperation slipping into his tone.

"What's this? Can't a pal ask a favor from another?" Yamanaka, the leader of the trio, said as he stepped forward, an insincere smirk plastered on his face that sent chills down Yoichi's spine. "We forgot our money. Can't you buy us our lunch?"

"Come on guys, we've been at this for a week already—"

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be?" Yamanaka pushed Yoichi, the force strong enough to send him back to the ground.

Yoichi hissed as a bolt of pain struck him; he turned his head to look up at the boy just in time to see the foot coming in his direction. He whipped his head back around, anxiety building up inside him and distracting him to the point where he nearly didn't notice that the contact wasn't from a kick like he had anticipated, but rather a constant pressure against his skull.

This was turning out to be a disaster, just as he had feared. In fact, this outcome was the exact reason why it took him so long to stand up to Yamanaka and try to talk to him. And now that he was stuck in this situation, Yoichi was at a loss as to what to do.

He didn't know if he could back down now—and even if he could, he wasn't sure if he even _wanted_ to. But despite that, the last thing that he wanted was to anger the other boys. What if they got into an actual fight? What if he got in trouble?

Yoichi was absorbed in his thoughts. Yamanaka's words—as well the faint noise of conversations from students outside the building—barely registered. That is, until a familiar voice spoke up louder than the others, snapping Yoichi back to reality.

"What the hell is happening here?"

"Huh?" All four of them turned around to face the boy, who looked down at them with little emotion betrayed from his judging eyes.

"Shiho!" Yoichi's eyes widened, the situation sinking in; Shiho was the last person that he wanted to witness the situation. "Please, let me handle this— _ouch_." Yoichi's plea was cut short as Yamanaka suddenly put pressure on him. It would have sent him tumbling down if Yoichi hadn't had the presence of mind to catch himself by the elbows.

"It doesn't seem to me like you have much control over the situation." Yoichi sat up as he rubbed his head. He did not pay much mind to the light ache, instead mulling over Shiho's words, which were painfully accurate.

"And who are you? A punk looking for a fight?" Yuiji asked as the three walked over to surround Shiho; they didn't seem intimidated by his taller stature.

"Hm...I don't see you around often; maybe you're one of the nerds in the cram school? I think I would have remembered someone with pink hair," Shishido taunted. Even though Shiho didn't acknowledge the comment, Yoichi knew that it had managed to piss him off.

"Did you seriously consider starting a fight because you cowards were bully—"

"Shiho, wait!" Yoichi cut him off, seeing where this was going and how the trio wasn't liking the insult. "You got it wrong. I'm asking for a favor!"

"A favor?" Shiho raised a brow, but Yoichi couldn't say he looked particularly surprised.

Yamanaka, on the other hand, seemed pleased with the new route. "Yeah, Yoichi here is helping us out, and in exchange I might get him a pass to the army."

Yoichi felt a shiver run down his spine. He made a point to look down and gaze at the floor, but he could feel Shiho staring at him.

"...And how would you help with that?" His tone was suddenly cold, really cold, but Yamanaka didn't seem to notice. It didn't matter though; it wasn't him who caused it.

"With my connections, of course. After all, I am in the Vampire Extermination Unit."

"Oh, really? I would have expected that someone with such status in the army wouldn't be frequenting regular school...could it be that you're suspended then?"

Yoichi didn't care to pay attention to the rest of the conversation, freezing as realization sank into him. He really was an idiot.

Just a minute later the trio was leaving in hasty steps, and whatever the outcome had been, Yoichi knew that they probably wouldn't bother him again—and he really couldn't care less about it.

"Wait," Yoichi said as he stood up, rushing towards Shiho's retreating back before he could leave without a word—as he intended to. "I—"

"Yoichi." His voice cut like daggers and Yoichi stopped in his tracks, flinching upon hearing his name.

He wanted to explain himself, but words escaped him. What was there to explain anyway?

"When are you finally going to give up?"

Yoichi suck in a breath. "Wha…"

"How many times will I have to tell you?" Kimizuki turned around to face him; he didn't look mad, exactly, but exasperated at the very least. "Yoichi, I said that I wouldn't help you for a reason."

That's right; Shiho had been in the army for a year now. He had been trying to get in since he arrived in the city two years ago, but had only been accepted last year. He said that it probably had something to do with Mirai's worsening condition—the army would cover her treatment if he got in—but either way it worked.

Since then he dropped regular school and concentrated fully on the classes offered by the army, while also spending some time doing patrols outside the border to protect the city from the four horsemen.

But it was only recently that Yoichi attempted to coax Shiho into helping him. Yoichi had arrived in the city just a couple months after Shiho and had tried applying to the army as well. It was on such an occasion that they had first met in fact, even though Yoichi didn't have the luck to be accepted.

So, after almost half a year of gathering his courage, Yoichi finally asked Shiho to help him get in. But despite his high hopes, Shiho immediately turned him down, and kept denying him again and again.

There was a moment that Yoichi realized it wouldn't work, but he didn't want to give up just yet. So when he heard a student bragging about being in the Vampire Extermination Unit, of course Yoichi jumped on the first opportunity.

And honestly, it was entirely his fault for not thinking this through, but...

"The fact that you went straight to acting like a dog in front of those idiots just proves my point."

...did he really mess up that bad?

His throat felt suddenly constricted, but he fought to speak the words haunting his mind. "B-but, if you won't help me and going the regular route isn't working, what am I _supposed to do?"_

"What if you're supposed to do nothing then?" For the first time since the beginning of the conversation, Shiho actually shouted back at him. "What if you're not supposed to get in the army at all?"

Yoichi was taken aback, betrayal filling him. "...You think I'm not capable?"

Shiho sighed in exasperation, and Yoichi noticed how he seemed divided for a moment. He wouldn't have been surprised if Shiho wanted to curse at him, say that his wishes were delusional, or anything along those lines. What he did not expect were the words that slipped through his lips.

"Damn it, Yoichi. I just need you to be safe."

His heart skipped a beat as his eyes went wide, and Yoichi could feel them filling with tears. Safe? Why was he saying that...he didn't want to be safe; he didn't deserve it. After all the sacrifices made for his sake, he couldn't simply go live a normal life, much less in this messed-up world. He didn't want his sister's death to go to waste in an insignificant life; he wanted to avenge her or help others in the same situation that he had been through. He wanted to be useful for once in his life!

"...Yoichi?"

Yoichi looked up at Shiho's stunned face. Had he said all that out loud? Yoichi gritted his teeth; he didn't want to hear yet another denial. "Forget it," he said as he bolted out of there without looking back.

"No, Yoichi! Damn it."

He heard footsteps following him, and so he ran faster. Yoichi went up two flights of stairs and ran into a broom closet at the end of the hallway. He heard a faint sound of aimless steps in the middle of the hallway, but they soon gave up the search on that level and went back to the stairs.

Once they were out of hearing range, Yoichi finally let out a breath that he didn't notice he had been holding. And all at once, he fell apart. He started shaking as sobs broke out from him, all while tears ran freely down his face.

He didn't want anyone protecting him, not anymore—he'd had enough of that already. He wanted to be the one to help instead. He was willing to put himself in danger in order to do it, so why was it that no one let—

There was a loud noise, so loud that it left Yoichi's ears ringing for a couple of seconds. It sounded like an explosion, and one very close to where he was by the looks of it. And almost immediately after it died down, the speakers around the place burst to life, announcing what had just happened.

A vampire had escaped.

Once the words sank in, the rest of the announcement turned into white noise in the back of his head, which was now filling with all sorts of questions, such as: why was there a vampire near the school? How did it escape? And was it—

Yoichi snapped back to reality as he heard a scream: it sounded like a girl, but most importantly, it sounded close.

Yoichi stood up with slightly wobbly legs, but he paid it no mind as he reached for the handle. But, as soon as he held it, he hesitated. What if the vampire was there? As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he shook it off. This was the last possible moment to hesitate.

He turned the handle, opened the door, and was met with an empty hallway. All the students that might have been there now were long gone—or at least most of them. He remained cautious; despite the silence, he knew something was up.

The scream had come from the right, and there were four classrooms that way. But after checking two empty classrooms, he nearly had a heart attack upon catching a glimpse of something in the third one.

His eyes went wide as he saw a brunette girl lying on the teacher's desk, held by none other than a vampire. Yoichi's heart sped up as he saw the vampire leaning towards the girl's neck, fangs elongated and gleaming, ready to sink in—and then scarlet eyes met his own, and Yoichi slammed himself back behind the wall.

"Who is there? Is it a dessert?"

He didn't think the vampire had moved, but didn't want to check. Instead, his eyes darted frantically through the hallway in search of some sort of weapon. Finally, he noticed a chair that had been left outside for whatever reason. Yoichi had no time to dwell upon it; he ran to grab it.

He turned around as soon as he had a hold of it, yelping as he came face to face with the vampire. Not thinking, he used the momentum to swing the chair at the vampire. It did not hit the target, who ducked easily enough, but it served as enough distraction to allow Yoichi to pass by her and sprint towards the classroom.

The vampire was hot on his heels, and Yoichi threw the chair still in his hands at the vampire, this time effectively hitting her. Despite the vampire's still-quick movements, Yoichi could tell that she was greatly slowed down by a likely lack of blood.

Yoichi ran towards the girl. "Are you okay?" She mumbled something incoherent in reply—she looked only half-conscious—but she didn't seem to have any injuries at least. With that noted, Yoichi turned back around, facing a less-than-pleased vampire.

"We're done already?"

Yoichi gulped, the high of adrenaline starting to go down and his predicament sinking in like cold water. He was alone, with no remaining makeshift weapon and a pissed-off vampire just a few feet away from him.

His mind went blank and he could do nothing but stand frozen in place as the vampire lunged towards him. He squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for the worst. But the impact never came, even though he could still hear it.

"Yoichi, run!"

Yoichi shot his eyes open, Shiho's back filling his vision. "Shiho…" He looked down and noticed that he held an axe, the blade stained with dark red blood. Across the room stood the vampire, holding onto her hips. She lifted her hand, revealing reddened cloth and torn-up flesh, fighting to knit itself back together.

"Hurry up!" Shiho spoke once more, this time more urgently.

"Wait, but what about the girl?"

"It will only slow you down if you try to carry her. You got to bring someone quickly!" Yoichi was hesitant to comply, but he knew that Shiho had a point. And so he ran.

Yoichi suspected that the axe Shiho held wasn't a cursed weapon at all, which meant that he had no chance of defeating the vampire; the only thing he could do was buy time.

Yoichi sprinted out of the building, momentarily at a loss for what to do. Most students had already evacuated, so when Yoichi noticed a group of adults nearby, he felt instant relief.

"Hey!" he yelled, running towards them and attracting their attention. "You're the extermination squad, right? The vampire is up there!" Yoichi said, pointing at the classroom window.

The squad moved immediately, saying a "thank you" to Yoichi as they passed by him. Yoichi stood on edge the whole time. He heard a crash at some point and worried, but it soon went silent, even if somehow the quiet turned out to be worse. But despite his worrying, less than five minutes had passed when he saw them emerging from the building.

"Shiho!" Yoichi rushed towards him. He was limping, leaning on the red-haired girl from the squad. When he got closer, he noticed a cut on his side. "Oh no, you're injured!"

"I'm fine." Shiho tried to brush it off, but he winced as he spoke.

"It's not that bad, but it's still good to take him to the nurse's office." Yoichi looked up at the girl.

"I can take him there." She nodded to him and Yoichi put Shiho's arm over his shoulder. Shiho didn't look very happy about their trip, but complied without any other complaint.

The walk there was quiet and somewhat awkward. Now that they weren't in danger anymore, their last conversation weighed on Yoichi's mind. Once they got there, the nurse did a quick check up on Shiho, cleaning the wound and wrapping it up with bandages. She said that there wasn't much more she could do except advise him to rest.

After that she left, leaving them alone. Technically, the girl from before was there as well—she had been brought earlier by another member of the squad—but she was asleep. Mustering his courage, Yoichi spoke up.

"About earlier…"

"I'm sorry."

Yoichi blinked and looked up, meeting Shiho's gaze. "What?" Why was he saying sorry? _He_ was the one who was about to apologize.

"For saying that you should give up, basically. I…" He trailed off, seemingly at as much of a loss for words as Yoichi himself. "Look, I didn't think it was something for you...getting in the army I mean. But after your outburst...I hadn't realized how strongly you felt about it, but—Yoichi, do you really feel this way?"

Yoichi blinked, more and more surprised by each word spoken. "What do you mean?"

"You said that you didn't want your sister's...sacrifice to be for nothing. Do you really think that not avenging her would make you useless?"

"I...I need to do something—"

"No, Yoichi, you don't." Shiho held both his shoulders. Yoichi swallowed dry. Having his words questioned while under Shiho's intense stare was too much. "Yoichi, you don't have to get involved in this war to make yourself worth something, and I know that Tomoe would say the same. She didn't save you expecting you to take revenge, she saved you hoping that you could live!"

Yoichi's vision became blurry with tears, and a sob got in the way of his words. "B-but...how can I live with this? How can I live with myself knowing that I couldn't do a thing? I—I don't want that. I need to do something; the last thing I want is to live a reasonably normal life while pretending that the word isn't ending."

Shiho sighed, but there was resignation in his eyes. The next thing he knew, Yoichi was being embraced by him. He clung to his shirt, staining his shoulder with his tears.

"I believe in you." Shiho spoke softly into his ear, and the honesty in his words only made him cry harder. "...And I'll help you."

"Did you call me, sir?"

Guren looked up from the papers on his desk, seeing the pink-haired boy, Kimizuki. "Yes. Take a seat," he said as he vaguely motioned to the chair.

Guren picked up all the papers scattered about and put them in his drawer, once more looking up at the boy as he sat down. "What is it that you wanted, sir?" Kimizuki spoke slowly, in a way that seemed as if he were purposely trying not to look interested even as the gleam in his eyes betrayed him.

He hadn't exactly spoken directly with the boy before, but Guren did read his records; by the looks of it he seemed disciplined and hardworking, but he didn't strike him as the ass-kissing type. Guren wondered what he expected out of this.

"I wanted you to report the events from the incident with the vampire the other day." Guren went straight to the point, and the boy nodded, not taking too long to collect his thoughts.

"Right after I heard the explosion, I managed to catch a glimpse of the vampire entering the building—"

"And you decided to go after it instead of warning someone. Explain." He noticed that Kimizuki stilled for a moment upon hearing his words, but even so, Guren was impressed by how composed he remained.

"...My friend was in there, and the confusion was immense; finding anyone in that crowd would have taken too long."

"So you went after a vampire with a regular axe that you stole from the janitor," Guren said, pressing on.

"I didn't have my own weapon at hand, and even so, it's not even enchanted, so it wouldn't have made a difference."

Guren stared at him for a moment; he could feel the boy finally getting nervous. But then he just sighed. "Understandable. Not the best course of action, but because of it a larger number of victims was avoided…"

Kimizuki nodded, starting to relax.

"One more thing," Guren continued. "I noticed the other day that you had something written on your arm…" He vaguely traced the shapes in the air. Kimizuki's eyes narrowed as he stared at his hands—until realization hit him.

"Oh, you mean—it was an enhancing spell. It was pretty simple though." Despite the humble words, there was a hint of pride in his voice. Guren had figured as much, but he wanted the confirmation.

"It might have been simple, but that doesn't make it any less tricky." Ever since the catastrophe, it was incredibly hard to find someone with an aptitude for spellcasting—even before, it was a difficult prospect. The fact that this boy was teaching himself—since the classes that they had on the subject weren't exactly enough—made him quite...valuable. "Most people have trouble with spells, and it seems to me that you held your own against the vampire reasonably well, which leads me to believe that this spell did help...would you mind showing me?"

"The runes?"

"Yes," he said as he picked up a paper from the drawer and handed it to Kimizuki along with a pen. His hands were slightly shaky as he took the pen, and he seemed a bit lost as he stared at the paper, but once the pen touched the surface, the lines flowed smoothly and swiftly, creating a simple and clean design.

"I've never seen anything exactly like it," Guren said as he stared at the paper with curiosity. The overall composition was unfamiliar, even if he could pick up a few of the elements within, mostly meaning "speed" and "strength."

"It's...it's because I made it. It's a mix of a couple of things that I found in the books in the private library."

"That explains it…" Guren pondered for a moment. The boy did have potential. Perhaps, with a bit of training, he could help him with his own research...

Guren was about to consider the conversation finished, but before he could speak, the boy continued: "...And, if I may ask you, the friend that I had mentioned earlier…is there a way to—look, he really wants to get in the army."

Oh, so _that's_ what he wanted. "Your friend? The one you risked fighting a vampire for?" His words carried a fake innocence that was meant to poison, but they didn't achieve the effect that he had expected. On the contrary, the boy seemed to be pleased to hear the question.

"That's not it, sir. In fact, the vampire would have drained that girl before I had gotten there if it weren't for him. He distracted the vampire and held his own for a moment."

Guren raised a brow, intrigued by the development. "Is that so? And what is his name?"

"It's Saotome Yoichi."

Guren nodded. "Is that all?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're dismissed then." Kimizuki nodded and left the room without another word.

Guren went back to his paperwork, but he didn't get far before hearing yet another knock on the door. "Yes?"

The door opened, revealing a slightly distressed brunette, although that just seemed to be one of her default expressions. "What is it, Sayuri?"

"Guren-sama," she began, walking towards his desk with no hesitation. "I just received a report."

"A report?"

"Yes. Apparently one of the students entered one of our training facilities: the one with the cursed weapon."

Guren sighed, already feeling a headache coming on. "How bad was the damage?"

"Uh, about that, sir…" Instead of answering, she simply handed him the sheet that she had been holding.

After sending her a questioning glance, he skimmed his eyes through the handwritten report, not quite believing the odds. _This is turning out to be a very interesting day_.

"The boy is in the medical wing at the moment, just for a routine checkup. Do you want me to direct him to your office once it's done?"

"No need for that," he said as he handed her back the sheet, standing up from his chair. "I might as well go talk to him myself."

Sayuri seemed taken aback by his statement. "Uh? Are you sure that's necessary?"

"I was going to leave anyway and check some records. Another thing on the list won't make a difference."

It's one thing to hear Shiho saying that he would help him, but it was another thing entirely to receive a letter saying that he had been accepted to the army—well, not quite yet; he would start with preparatory classes first, but it was still a great step forward.

Yoichi wasn't sure what to expect. Sure, perhaps it was just another normal class, but this new unknown challenge still managed to simultaneously make him excited and uneasy. At least Shiho would be there to help him.

...He didn't think his class would surprise him so soon, however.

When Yoichi entered the room, the class was already mostly filled, with some students talking amongst themselves while others just sat quietly, waiting for the beginning of class. Yoichi stood by the door, scanning the room in search of a seat, but was taken aback when his eyes fell on a familiar figure. "Shishido?!" Yoichi exclaimed, louder than expected, drawing attention from a few students, including Shishido himself.

Yoichi blushed profusely and moved his gaze down to the floor, fast walking to the first empty desk that he noticed. Though, as he did so, a hand caught his wrist, and Yoichi spun around to face his ex-bully. "Saotome, I—I'm sorry." The boy spoke in a rush, and his words actually felt sincere, to Yoichi's confusion.

"What?"

Shishido didn't answer immediately, instead seeming to snap out of a trance, his mind catching up with his actions; he let go of Yoichi's wrist as suddenly as if it burned him.

"About...about what we did to you," he started again, seemingly more composed. "It was pretty shitty. I'm sorry for what I did and said to you…"

Yoichi only grew more surprised by the second. He would never have expected this outcome. But it was a good thing, wasn't it? "I...I accept your apologies." Shishido seemed to brighten up slightly, and Yoichi decided to give in to his curiosity. "Uh, if I may ask...what prompted this? And, well. How did you end up here?"

Shishido blinked, and a moment later he was turning to the side and raising his hand to rub the back of his neck. "Oh, that's...a slightly complicated story. I'll try to make it short though…" Yoichi nodded encouragingly, and he took a deep breath. "Well, a couple of days ago, the guys and I decided to go explore the school. We found one of the seven mysteries; it was a locked door in the lower levels full of binding spells. We realized that trying to get in there was a stupid idea, so we turned around to leave. That's when we noticed Yuiji wasn't there with us. We went running back, but when there was no sign of him anywhere, we knew he had entered the room. So I told Yamanaka to run and get someone while I waited there."

"And what next?" Yoichi asked with sincere curiosity, absorbed by the story.

Shishido's expression became serious. "And then I did something stupid: I entered the room." He paused, the implication causing Yoichi's eyes to widen. "The first time I tried opening the door it didn't budge. I don't know why it worked the second time...but anyway, I got in. The room was way bigger than I imagined, and in the center there was a huge circle with several weapons dropped around. And in the middle stood Yuiji, holding an axe, but he didn't quite look like himself…"

"And did you get close?" Yoichi asked, impressed by the story with a morbid sort of awe.

Shishido nodded. "I approached him, trying to talk; I didn't know what was happening. But when I got close, he suddenly turned around and tried to attack me. I stumbled backwards and I thought he was going to hit me, but then he stopped at the edge of the circle. I...I think he was stuck in there. And I shouldn't have tried again, but I did. And when he got close once more, I held the axe and pulled it from him, and then—"

He stopped abruptly, seemingly at a sudden loss for words. Yoichi blinked at the change, concern beginning to seep into his voice. "Are you okay?"

Shishido nodded. "Yeah, it's just...it was really weird what happened next. I mean, they told me later what it was. Apparently, that axe was a cursed weapon, and when I touched it, the demon tried to possess me. Though I somehow managed to beat it, I woke up a few minutes later sprawled on the ground with a killer headache, Yuiji passed out beside me. Not long passed before the door burst open, a frantic soldier rushing down the steps."

"Wow, I can't believe it—you, you actually beat it?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, are you actually believing this bullshit?" Yoichi jumped, startled by the sudden comment, while Shishido seemed to freeze in place.

Yoichi wasn't sure at first if the comment was directed at him, but upon looking in the direction where the voice came from and seeing a brunette girl a few feet away staring right back at him...yep, she was talking about them.

"Uh, what?" Yoichi lamely said. He wasn't sure what to say about her very disrespectful comment, but he felt like it should be addressed.

"Come on, do you actually think—" She started speaking with the same scornful tone, but the other girl sitting beside her—who Yoichi only then noticed—cut her off.

"Chiyo! Please, you're being rude." She was frantic as she spoke, and also somewhat exasperated, but Chiyo simply sighed in annoyance and turned away. Yoichi wondered if it was a recurring thing. "I'm sorry about my friend, she can be like this sometimes...please go on with your conversation!"

Yoichi's gaze lingered there only for a moment longer, even though the girls' attention had already drifted from them. Chiyo now seemed to be reprimanding her—friend? But Yoichi didn't pay attention to the conversation for too long, instead switching his attention back to Shishido, who stared at the floor, his expression indecipherable.

"Hey, don't mind her, I believe you. And I find it pretty amazing that you managed to beat it!"

Shishido looked back at him, becoming somewhat awkward at the praise, and proceeded to brush it off. "Uh, I guess...though they said it was a very weak demon."

"Still. They must have been impressed; that's how you got here, right?"

"Well, yeah, I—"

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Both of them whipped their heads around towards the new voice, and Yoichi felt both relief and exasperation when he saw a very angry and quickly approaching Shiho. Oh, this could easily turn into an argument, and the timing couldn't have been worse...Yoichi mentally sighed before quickly stepping in front of Shishido, raising his hands in an appeasing gesture. "Wait, he apologized!"

Shiho stomped his way closer until he was standing in front of Yoichi. His mouth opened up to speak, but Yoichi felt a hand on his shoulder and he noticed Shiho's gaze flickering towards a point behind Yoichi. Shishido gently pushed Yoichi to the side, the gesture earning a glare from Shiho.

"It's Shiho, right? Look, I really am sorry. I've been a jerk, following along with Yamanaka...he really does some pretty nasty stuff."

But despite the apology and calming words, Shiho took a step forward, anger bubbling up once more, and took a fistful of Shishido's shirt. "You didn't have to follow him if you didn't want to, you coward!"

"Shiho!" Yoichi exclaimed, not expecting his friend's reaction. By then, most of the students were staring at the confrontation, including the two girls from before.

"No, he's right," Shishido said. Yoichi glanced at Shiho, who had his eyes narrowed, but otherwise seemed like he would listen, and then returned his gaze back to Shishido. "I've really been a coward. I guess I was that desperate for some company…"

Shiho didn't let go of him, but also didn't say anything in reply. The air around them was heavy, and a couple tense seconds passed by. They looked like they could keep up like that for a long time, so Yoichi took a deep breath before speaking up and attempting to dissipate the tension: "Well, but you're here now!" Yoichi switched his gaze between them both. Shiho stiffened, but otherwise didn't move. "...Right, Shiho?"

Shiho glanced back at Yoichi, and reluctantly let go of Shishido with a huff. "Yeah. I guess you're part of the 'nerds in cram school' now." There was some bitterness in his tone, but Yoichi would take what he could get.

Shishido held out his hand to Shiho. "I hope we can start over."

"Maybe," Shiho said without taking his hand, and moved to walk over to his seat, but paused on his way. "And it's Kimizuki to you." He left without a glance.

Yoichi stepped forward. "Well, you can call me Yoichi!"

"...Ayumu," he answered as he lowered his hand.

"Alright class, I'm sorry for the little delay. I had to run a last-minute errand," a brunette woman said as she walked in the room; probably the teacher. "Everyone get to your seats. Class is about to begin."

That said, Ayumu went back to his seat and Yoichi went to the empty seat beside Shihou.

Two months later Yoichi had fallen into a routine. During mornings and early afternoons, he would still take regular classes since he didn't have to go on patrols like Shiho four times per week.

After that, though, he would go to the army's preparatory classes. The classes themselves would vary a bit: they had two days of physical training (mostly without weapons), one day of (strictly theoretical) basic spell casting and demon lore, one day explaining the current situation of the war and whatnot, and another one for battle strategies. Besides that, they had some teamwork exercises every two weeks.

That day was a Wednesday, and the subject was spells. Despite being basic and admittedly merely informative, Yoichi still had a hard time comprehending the runes. Luckily for him though, he could ask Shiho's help with the subject later. The "later" part was because Shiho did not attend this specific class, since he was in a more advanced level. Besides, around the same week that Yoichi began attending these classes, Lieutenant Colonel Guren had called Shiho again, saying that he would help him with his studies and giving him permission to access some more advanced books along with tutoring him on Wednesdays and Saturdays—although the Saturday classes were shorter.

And because of that, Yoichi was surprised to get to class that day and find Shiho already there in his usual seat.

"Hey, you came today," Yoichi mentioned as he sat beside him.

"Hm?" Shiho looked up from the book he had been reading—Harmonious Rune Combinations—to face Yoichi. "Ah, yes. Guren cancelled today's class, since he's going back to teaching on weekdays."

Yoichi settled his things down on the table, blinking. "Wait, he used to teach?"

"Yeah, he actually used to be the teacher of this class," Shiho said as he marked his place in the book and closed it. "But he stopped around three months ago, and the only explanation that we were given was that he was busy with other stuff."

"Really? But wait, so why did he start tutoring you then? I mean, since he was busy."

Shiho hummed, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, I was pretty confused too. And I did ask him about that, but the only thing that he said was that it was good to have more people who actually understood magic." He shrugged, sighing. "I'd be more annoyed to be in the dark about it, but as long as it's helping me, I don't really care."

Yoichi nodded, processing the new information. "I see…"

The class began shortly after. Yoichi flipped his notebook open as Sayuri started to write on the chalkboard. The class was relatively quiet by then, with no more chatting to fill the room. And so Yoichi practically jumped in his seat when the silence was disrupted by a loud noise coming from the door, which was harshly opened without warning.

"Guren-sama! You decided to show up to your own class today..." Sayuri said as she turned around, a small scribble near the kanji she had been writing.

"Save it, Sayuri. I have better things to do than teaching some brats," Guren said as he crossed the room with large strides, despite his overall uncaring stance. Yoichi couldn't help but flinch upon hearing his words.

Sayuri fiddled with her hands, and even though her next words were spoken quietly—almost inaudible from where Yoichi was sitting—she did not stutter. "Yes, I know...hence why I'm here."

And then someone stood up—Chiyo. "Sir, it's been almost three months since you last showed up, and you refused to answer me when I came to ask why. Quite honestly, I find this outrageous."

Yoichi's eyes widened, and he turned to whisper to Shiho. "This girl...she seems to be constantly looking for trouble."

"I know. It's ridiculous," he said as he stared at said girl with narrowed eyes. "To be honest, I was just as mad as her at first. But then I didn't get any further information, and I soon realized that Ms. Sayuri was, in many ways, a better teacher than Guren, so I stopped caring that much about it."

Yoichi watched the exchange between Chiyo and Guren, which was slowly getting heated. "...Well, she still cares quite a lot about it, apparently."

Shiho simply grunted in response, and their short conversation was over.

"I found out that Ms. Sayuri isn't even officially supposed to be teaching us; you should be the one doing it, according to the system," Chiyo continued.

"Oh, right. I'm very aware of your recent inquiry," Guren answered, his tone sarcastic. "As a matter of fact, that's precisely why I'm back here today, so thank you for that."

The answer only seemed to anger the girl further, and, to be honest, Yoichi couldn't blame her much; Guren really wasn't helping his case. "You!" She breathed in, regaining a bit of her composure. "Don't you think that you should care a bit more about us? We are your future soldiers, aren't we? And it seems like the army is a bit desperate for more people."

Yoichi was thrown off slightly by the last part. The shortage of personnel was no surprise, but there seemed to be something more to her comment.

"We are doing very well actually." Guren sounded as confident as ever, but Yoichi could notice a small furrowing of his brows.

"Oh yeah?" Oh, she seemed...not pleased exactly. But now Yoichi was sure that she was thinking of something in particular. "And how about that catastrophe of a mission? A simple mission to bring more civilians that not only failed, but also ended with our soldiers massacred!"

Guren did not answer right away, and murmuring sprung up throughout the classroom. Ayumu—who now sat at the table in front of theirs—turned around. "Hey, do you guys think she means that incident from four days ago?"

The incident...the same thought had crossed Yoichi's mind.

"...It's very possible," Shiho said, and Yoichi nodded.

Shiho had told him and Ayumu about the incident the other day; it was something that the others were talking about in one of the patrols.

Four days prior, three squads had been sent on a mission. It wasn't anything big; they just had to escort some people from a somewhat distant village to a base. However, they did not expect that it had already been claimed by the vampires, nor that there would be so many of them guarding the place. As a result, only four soldiers made it back alive, as well as less than a dozen civilians—the rest of them being left behind, a fate that some would argue was worse than that of the fallen soldiers.

The incident was an odd one. The army didn't usually go after villages that distant or send such a large number of squads. Moreover, the fact that the place was being guarded also raised some brows. Some people among the army were wondering if there was more to it than official channels were willing to admit.

"Alright," Guren said, causing the whispers to die down. "What do you suggest then?"

Yoichi couldn't see Chiyo's face from that angle, but he was certain she was as surprised as he by the answer. Was Guren actually considering her words?

Chiyo breathed in, and when she spoke, her words were firm. "I demand to get a goddamn cursed weapon already."

The already quiet classroom somehow seemed to get even quieter. Guren wasn't going to agree with it, right?

"Oh? I'd love to, but I can't just go giving cursed weapons to whoever asks." Yoichi let out a breath that he hadn't noticed that he had been holding...although it wasn't over just yet. "Let's make a deal then: I'll test this entire class now, and I promise to give whoever passes a cursed weapon—of the black demon series even."

Yoichi blinked, genuinely surprised. "He's actually doing it…"

"B-but, Guren-sama!" Sayuri finally interjected. She seemed frantic. "The admission test won't be happening for another month—"

"Hence why I'm making my own test." And then he turned back to Chiyo. "Is that fine with you?"

"I—yes!" She sounded both triumphant and confused.

Yoichi felt uneasy.

"Alright then, everyone, stand up!" Yoichi just stared, not registering the order right away as he was still trying to absorb the overall turn of events. But as people started to get up, he followed as well. "Whoever is still standing by the end passes, and if you die, you have no one to blame but yourselves." He unsheathed his sword.

"W-wait! You can't do this here!" Sayuri yelled, trying to stop him, but she was too slow.

Guren pierced his sword into the floor, and the result was near instantaneous. The room somehow grew darker and colder, with the lights flickering out and a pressure starting to build up, all while purple tendrils raised up from the floor. Some people screamed, and students started to fall to the floor.

"What's happening?!" Yoichi asked desperately, watching the scene in horror. He felt a pressure on his skull, but it couldn't be worse than an especially bad headache.

Shiho groaned beside him; he looked way worse than Yoichi, gritting his teeth as he leaned slightly forward and clutched his chest. "It's...as if my heart were being squeezed."

People continued to fall, some unconscious even, and Yoichi started to get more and more concerned. But before he could think of something to do, the aura disappeared in a blink, and everything slowly came back to normal, even though some of the effects seemed to linger.

"Congratulations! The five of you who are still standing will get a cursed weapon today." Guren's sudden words startled Yoichi. He looked around, noticing that besides him, Shiho, Ayumu, Chiyo, and another girl—Kumiko, if he remembered correctly—were standing as well. Although Shiho, Ayumu, and Chiyo seemed quite out of breath, while Kumiko—oh. She fell down as well. "...Four. Well, that's already more than I expected. You all follow me—before I change my mind."

The tension around them was thick.

The six of them walked down the incredibly long staircase in silence, but each one seemed to be in a different state of mind. Shiho seemed confident enough, while Chiyo seemed nearly smug, even though Yoichi was pretty sure that her current state couldn't be as shallow as that. Ayumu had his brows furrowed, and despite having his gaze locked on the path forward, he seemed almost out of it, as if his mind was far, far away…

Yoichi himself wasn't sure about how he was feeling. He was finally getting a cursed weapon. He finally had his longtime goal in reach; he should feel ecstatic, but...well, it's not like he wasn't happy, he was—or perhaps happy wasn't the word...maybe accomplished? Although he didn't quite get it yet, he still had to make the contract and...well. He was overthinking.

"Sayuri, if you have something to say, just say it already," Guren said suddenly, snapping Yoichi out of his thoughts. Come to think of it, Ms. Sayuri really had been acting jittery through the entire walk.

"Uh, Guren-sama...do you really think this is a good idea?"

"Well, if I didn't think it was a good idea, I wouldn't be going through with it, would I?"

"Well, yes, but...I'm not sure they are all qualified just yet. What if they aren't strong enough—"

"I proposed a test, to which Chiyo agreed, and she did pass, so there's nothing to worry about on her account." Sayuri's eyes widened, but Yoichi also caught the way Chiyo looked away. "The others also passed the test, so they should be just as qualified. Unless you think otherwise, that is."

Guren finally turned to look at Sayuri, who abruptly stopped walking, causing everyone to stop as well. She didn't answer right away.

"I...I'm pretty sure Kimizuki is ready, but I'm not sure about the other two…"

Everyone then turned around to look at Yoichi and Ayumu, and Yoichi was taken aback by the sudden attention.

"You two. Are you willing to risk your life and get into the army? Or do you want to give up? This is your last chance to back down."

Yoichi blinked. "What—"

"I am." Ayumu spoke securely, so much so that it surprised Yoichi, who looked at him. But despite the confidence, his head was tilted to the ground, and he could not see his eyes.

"You're what?" Guren asked.

"I—I am willing to risk my life."

It was a moment before Guren spoke again. "Very well. And what about you?"

"Uh?" Guren's gaze was then locked on him, and Yoichi gulped. "I…" Everyone looked at him expectantly, waiting for his answer. And why didn't it come? That's what he so desperately wanted, wasn't it? To avenge his sister; to be useful for once. "I am. I am willing."

Shiho let out a breath, and Yoichi himself felt relief. _That's right, that's what he wanted; that's what he would get._

"Alright. With that cleared up, I think we can move on then."

They reached their destination with no more stops or comments, remaining silent the entire way. Besides the staircase, they also had to take an elevator to go even further down before finally reaching a set of double doors, which Guren did not waste time opening.

Yoichi stared in awe as he entered the room. The ceiling was incredibly high, and the room had an octagonal shape, each wall having a different oni mask, as well as a different weapon.

"What is this place?" Shiho asked, being the first to break the silence.

"This is where we keep the cursed weapons of the highest level."

"Well, this place sure looks extra...and isolated," Chiyo quietly commented.

Yoichi looked around once more, noting the binding circles and extra precautions, like the strings and what he believed to be a tank of salt. It looked well-guarded indeed.

"All this...decoration. Is it a necessary precaution?" Shiho asked. Glancing back at him, Yoichi noticed him staring at one of the huge oni masks.

"Yes. These are part of the binding keeping the demons trapped inside these weapons. Since they are extremely powerful, having a demon without a contract might be a bit unstable, hence the higher preventative measures."

"Mm-hm…" Shiho started walking towards one of the walls, his eyes trained on the ground. "What about these circles?"

"Oh, these aren't actually related to the binding. They are specially designed for the purpose of the contract ceremony...but enough of that. Let's get started."

"I'll be on my way back, then. I've already stayed absent for long enough…" Sayuri said as she opened the door. Guren nodded at her and she left.

"Alright, this is what you have to do: choose the weapon that you wish and enter the circle. The ceremony will automatically begin once you touch the weapon." Yoichi finally took a step forward, scanning the room for a third time. The other three already seemed to have chosen a weapon—luckily, none of those interested Yoichi. "If you don't lose to the demon, then you'll get your power."

Something finally seemed to catch Yoichi's interest: a bow. He walked forward.

"And what happens if we lose?" Chiyo asked.

"One of two things may happen. Either you'll become a demon, devourer of humans, or its strength will overpower and kill you. Either way, you die. If by chance you become a demon, I'll kill you." Yoichi froze on the steps. Could he really die…? Would Guren really kill him? Guren didn't sound serious, but then again, he also didn't sound serious when he said he would give them a cursed weapon ten minutes ago, and there they were.

Yoichi shook his head. No, he couldn't have doubts now, not when he was literally steps from getting the means to achieve his goals. He closed his hand into a fist, walking the rest of the way until he was standing in front of the weapon.

"Draw and begin," Guren ordered.

Yoichi stared at the bow. This was it; this was finally the moment, the last step…

Yoichi reached for the weapon.


	9. Round and Round

**a/n: Another 5 months wait! Thank you all for sticking with me. In fact, I'm aware that I have a sort of cliff hanger going on since chapter 7, and I'll only go back to it on chapter 10 onz. But we are almost there! Hopefully until July I get this chap done.**

 **Oh, and sophie is an angel and commissioned an incredible artist, Kumi, something for me for Come Crashing, and this is so surreal goignaowri check this out (delete the spaces):**

 **twitter . com HellaKumii/status/1105240804765978625**

 **As per usual, thank you sophelia_moon for beta reading this for me 3**

 **(oh, another thing, I realized that ffnet deletes the spaces that I put between the scenes and the symbols that I attempted using, but I was too lazy to fix. Hopefully it looks alright now in this chap - edit: i should just have edited this damn thing here on the site)**

Darkness engulfed him, swallowing all his thoughts and leaving him alone in the emptiness of his own mind.

And then a new reality knitted itself together from the wool of his memories, crafting buildings from the shadows and painting landscapes over the void.

He knew where he was and what was happening. And all at once, fear and despair filled him, overflowing in the form of tears.

All of this happened instantly.

This instant—this was reality: nothing more, nothing before.

* * *

Yoichi's heart hammered in his chest, his sobs barely contained. There was a muffled sound coming from downstairs—the front door was open—and he held tightly onto his sister's sweater. There, in the warmth of her embrace, he felt a sense of security.

But then her gentle hands were pulling him away, and no amount of clinginess stopped her from leading him under the bed, cold and alone. "Don't leave here, no matter what, and stay quiet."

"Nee-san…?" His plea, no louder than a mere whisper, was cut off by the abrupt opening of the bedroom door.

A vampire entered, and the short moment it took him to walk towards Tomoe felt simultaneously too fast and too slow. Yoichi watched, in a state of stupor, as he lifted her off the ground and her feet started kicking the air. Drops of blood splattered onto the floor; her movements got slower. She had not yet stopped moving when her body suddenly crashed to the ground, startling Yoichi and causing him to let out a soundless scream.

His sister's dead eyes seemed to stare right into his soul.

But then her lips were moving, even though her gaze remained as lifeless as before. "Saotome Yoichi. We are now living your darkest memories."

"Nee-san...are you alive?" A corpse wouldn't be able to talk, after all...right?

"Alive?" There was a shift. The spark returned to her eyes, but instead of warmth, a cold feeling radiating off of her enveloped him. He shivered. "Oh, no, your sister is dead." Her emotionless face split in two with a sadistic smile, all while she turned her head vertically, bending her neck inhumanly. "Or is she so meaningless that you've forgotten already?"

"W-what?" His sister? What was she saying—wait. "You…" As if a lock had been opened, memories rushed back to him, and he finally remembered what was happening. "You're the demon! I came to make a contract with you…"

"Yes. You did," the demon—tastelessly wearing his sister's image—confirmed. Although, the next question confused him. "But why? For revenge?"

"Uh, yes." Why did it matter?

"You don't sound so sure." The demon's head remained still, but the body started moving into a position that matched the head. "In fact, I've searched through your heart, and the only thing I found was insecurity. You're not here to avenge your sister; you're here to give yourself some peace of mind."

Yoichi's blood ran cold, but he couldn't understand it. That wasn't the case; that wasn't why he was working so hard. "T-that's not true—"

"Yes, it is." The demon, now on all fours, started crawling all too slowly towards Yoichi. "You don't want to avenge your sister, because you're just _so_ happy to be alive—"

"No!" No, being alive was more a burden than a relief. But even as he thought that, shame inched its way to him.

"—if only you didn't feel so worthless...you want to remove this pain, this guilt, from your chest. Because your sister gave her life for a coward like you."

Yoichi closed his eyes shut, as tightly as his fists. Pressure started building up in his head as he tried to dismiss dark thoughts and feelings that didn't feel like his own.

"You're wrong!" he yelled, tears starting to flow. But no matter how much conviction he put in his words, uncertainty latched onto him, suffocating.

"Are we?" Two voices spoke up simultaneously, mirroring his own thoughts.

His eyes snapped open just in time to see hands reaching out to grab him. Yoichi screamed, but if it were out of pain, surprise, or something else, he wasn't sure.

Now, face to face with two pairs of red eyes hungrily staring down at him, he felt even smaller than his younger self.

"Would you have given your life to save your brave sister? So she could live a more worthy life than yours?" the black-haired one said. Yoichi felt out of breath.

"I-I'll give her justice." _I can't wish for my own death after what she did for me…_

"Oh, such noble reasoning...but don't you think it's a bit hypocritical of you?" The blond one spoke this time; snapping his attention towards the other vampire made him dizzy. "Or is it that you are still so afraid of dying, even hypothetically?"

"You, who are only alive because even vampires took pity on you…"

Yoichi closed his eyes again. "Shut up!"

He really felt like throwing up right now.

"I don't think you're good enough." Such cold words were spoken sweetly by his sister's lips, and just her voice was enough to make him look once more. Tomoe's expression was just as soft as her words. Her touch, soothing, caressed his tear-stained cheek. "So give me your body…"

And wasn't it so compelling?

"...and I'll avenge your sister for you!"

The hand left his cheek, and next thing he knew, the demon used it to stab him. The hand pierced his chest with such ease that Yoichi barely had time to process it. Pain erupted from the wound and he spluttered blood, his head dropping down.

Was it the end? Was it his defeat? Would everything end now, one step before his journey would even begin?

A sob escaped from his mouth and tears once more ran freely down his face. _No._

The demon chuckled. "You don't even have the will to fight—"

"I said"—Yoichi gripped the arm piercing his chest with shaking hands. He raised his head, anger boiling inside him—" _shut up_."

"What—"

Yoichi tore the demon's hand out of his chest with a scream. He stumbled back, nearly falling, but bent down and gripped his knees, panting. For a moment, the only noise filling the room was Yoichi's heavy breathing. When he finally looked up at the stunned demon, his gaze did not waver one bit, despite his fatigue. "I told you, you're wrong. I'm tired of hearing everyone saying that I can't do it. But I'll show them when I avenge my sister. And you will help me."

The demon's surprised expression slowly morphed into satisfaction. "I guess you really do have some conviction...I thought all your doubts would cloud your judgement, but perhaps not." The demon stepped closer, expression becoming stern. It gripped his chin, the cold from its fingers sinking into his skin and bones. "But are your desires really strong enough?"

"Yes!" Yoichi answered quickly. Too quickly.

The demon pulled him roughly, leaving their faces only a few inches apart. "Is it? Will you be able to do it even if you are alone? Because it seems to me that you tend to cling to others a bit too much."

Immediately an image of Shiho came to mind, but that wasn't all.

"Can you do things alone? Because if it weren't for the help of others you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't even be alive right now," the demon continued.

Yoichi didn't answer.

The grip on his chin loosened minimally. "There will be a moment in which you will have to turn your back on everyone. Will you be able to do that?" It felt alluring somehow.

"I…"

"When that time comes, will I be the only one you will rely on?"

As if he had been snapped out of a trance, Yoichi blinked.

The demon still waited for an answer. Yoichi thought of the demon's words; if agreeing with them was what it took, then it didn't seem like a big deal.

"Yes."

The demon let go of him, pleased. "You got yourself a deal. I'll lend you my powers."

Relief washed over Yoichi. He stood upright, holding the demon's outstretched hand.

"But remember, at the first sign of weakness, I _will_ take over."

Yoichi held the hand more tightly. "It won't happen."

The demon smirked. "We will see about that."

* * *

He opened his eyes, finding himself back in the room full of weapons. "...I did it?"

"Yoichi!" Shiho entered his line of sight, relief clear on his face.

"Shiho, you made it too?"

"Of course I did. Who do you take me for?" He helped him up, and Yoichi's body felt the lightest it had been in a long time.

"Wouldn't expect any less from him." Shiho stepped aside, allowing Yoichi to meet Guren's gaze. "Though I can't say I'm not surprised to see Yoichi awake already."

Yoichi wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult, so he settled with nodding in return. He did it, and that's what mattered. "Wait, but what about the others…?"

Yoichi looked around, getting his answer before receiving any reply.

"Still unconscious," Guren answered. "We can only wait. But for now, let me show you something. Bring your weapon."

Yoichi blinked at the sudden change of subject, but complied anyway. He picked up the fallen bow, noting that it was surprisingly light for its size, and went down the stairs with Shiho following behind.

"There are two kinds of weapon. The ones like Kimizuki's," Guren said, pointing at Shiho's twin swords already strapped on his belt, "are completely material and therefore must be physically carried, while the ones like yours..."

"Uh…" Yoichi was confused about where this explanation was going. "What exactly does—"

"Your bow is the most common type of the Black Demon Series, actually. Most weapons of this series have the ability to manifest and disappear at will, making it easier to carry."

"Oh?" Whatever Yoichi expected at first, that definitely wasn't it.

"Yes. You just...have to wish it away, I guess." Yoichi didn't find him very convincing, but Guren continued before he could argue. "You should try it!"

"Right now?" Yoichi blinked, taken aback by the sudden and vigorous suggestion—the fact that it was probably an attempt to cover up a lack of a better explanation didn't escape him.

"Yeah."

 _Here goes nothing, I guess._ Yoichi looked down at his bow, and for an awkward moment, he tried to figure out what to do. Deciding that starting with the obvious would be best, he just thought about the weapon vanishing.

"Wow!" Yoichi—who half-expected it not to work—watched in amazement as the bow actually burst into green flames, disappearing completely. "Shiho, did you know about that?"

It was subtle, but Yoichi could identify the surprise present in his expression. "No, I didn't."

But Yoichi's joy was cut short as a scream echoed through the room.

"Ayumu?!" Yoichi sprinted towards his friend, kneeling beside him. "What's the matter?" But he got no answer. His eyes were still sealed shut, even though his body was struggling. "Is he still unconscious? What's happening?"

Shiho and Guren finally reached him, but while Shiho seemed only mildly perturbed, Guren didn't look particularly concerned. "It seems he is having a hard time fighting the demon. He's probably losing right now."

"W-what?" Yoichi couldn't understand how they were so calm.

"You struggled too," Guren answered simply, and Yoichi did calm down a bit after hearing that.

"Did I? Then...then it means he still has a chance—"

"Maybe, but Yoichi, you didn't struggle nearly as much, and you didn't scream at all," Shiho finally answered, his voice loaded with poorly-concealed urgency.

Yoichi swallowed dry. "Is there something we can do to help, then?"

"What? No, we can not intervene with what is going on in his mind right now."

"But…" Yoichi had no knowledge of this sort of thing; this was not something that they were taught in the preparatory classes—maybe they would have mentioned it closer to the exams…? All he knew about demon contracts could be summarized as what had just transpired and the story Ayumu told him… "Wait. He told me that when he faced the demon in that other facility, when the demon was possessing Yuiji, he seemed to be trapped inside that circle. So maybe we could at least buy him some time—"

"Absolutely not. That circle is way too complex. We don't have the time nor the space for something of that caliber."

Yoichi's mouth snapped shut. Guren had a good point, and he had no idea what else to say.

"Wait, isn't there a simplified version of it?" Shiho finally said, surprising Yoichi, and apparently Guren too.

"Are you really going to consider that?"

"Of course. Isn't it in our best interest that as many people as possible pass? Besides, isn't it a good sigils exercise?" Shiho's answer was extremely rational and objective, but he seemed somewhat stiff as he spoke.

Guren took a short time thinking it over, which was good, seeing as Ayumu let out another groan. "...Fine. There is a simpler version, though it isn't nearly as effective as the complete one."

"It's okay," Yoichi said as he stood up, his voice firm. "We could use any help we can get."

"Alright then." Guren pulled out of his pocket some—chalk? He handed it to Shiho. "Draw a circle at least one palm apart from the other circle."

"Yes, sir."

Yoichi, who had been staring with furrowed brows at the piece of chalk, noticed Guren's gaze on him. "What? I was going to use it on the blackboard. I must have put it in my pocket and forgotten about it with all that distraction."

Yoichi didn't question it further.

"What now, sir?"

Guren's attention returned to Shiho. "On the inner side, put the elements on their respective cardinal points."

Yoichi was completely lost by then. He simply watched as Shiho drew four symbols composed of triangles and lines around the circle.

"Now, outside the circle, you put strength on north."

"Which version?"

"The basic one...there. Now, the symbols on east and west are the same; let me show you." Guren took the chalk and drew a symbol that looked like a square with a "V" inside. He passed the chalk back to Shiho and he repeated the symbol on the other side. "On south you write protection. And then, between those four you write 'X' and 'E' with the rune alphabet."

As Shiho drew symbols that didn't look like either letter, Yoichi grew exponentially more nervous. Ayumu gave no sign of calming down; his struggles only worsened. "Is that all?"

"Yes, that's exactly that, Kimizuki."

"Will it work?" Yoichi asked.

Guren shrugged. "We will see."

They waited. In the following minute, Chiyo showed signs of struggle too, but settled down. Still, Yoichi was on edge.

"...Shouldn't we make a circle for Ch—"

A loud crack cut him off, a sudden cloud of dust sending him on a coughing fit. Once it cleared up, he saw Ayumu standing, sword in hand. He raised his hand, striking at an invisible wall.

His eyes were slits and horns had sprouted from his head.

Yoichi gasped at the realization. "He's possessed…"

"I'd start chanting now, if I were you," Guren said as he—he just walked off.

Shiho complied, beginning to chant something in Latin, but Yoichi couldn't understand what; his knowledge of the language wasn't nearly as good as his. Ayumu screamed, causing Yoichi to flinch. "It's hurting him!"

"That isn't him anymore. It's a demon now!" Yoichi bit back a frustrated reply, deciding that focusing on Guren wasn't worth it.

Instead, he watched in horror as Ayumu got more violent, throwing attack after attack, slowly inching forward. "The circle is going to break…!" He had to do something, anything.

"Ayumu, please, break out of this, don't let the demon control you!" Yoichi yelled, urgency clear in his voice. Pleading was probably useless if Ayumu couldn't hear him, but he was getting desperate.

The demon raised the sword, ready to strike once more. "I know you want to make a difference. Please don't give up now!" And then the demon suddenly fell to his knees, going completely quiet. Shiho went quiet as well, but remained planted on his feet, just like Yoichi himself.

Ayumu raised his head to face them, confusion visible in his expression. He was also devoid of any demonic features. "It worked," Shiho said, breaking the silence. Yoichi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Did I make it…?" Ayumu asked as he tried to stand up. He stumbled and nearly fell back down. Yoichi stepped forward and helped to steady him.

"Yes, with some help from them," Guren said.

And then another loud crack echoed through the room. Yoichi froze, staring at the cloud of dust that formed right where Chiyo had been. His blood ran cold.

"One, two, three, _four_ humans against me. Isn't it a bit unfair...for you?" Yoichi could only see a moving blur.

"Ah." Guren sighed. "I guess three out of four was too good already."

"What's happening?" Ayumu asked, completely out of the loop.

"Chiyo couldn't make it and got possessed. Here's your first mission: kill that demon."

"What?! Kill? Can't we save her like we did with Ayumu?" Yoichi asked, shocked.

Guren stared at him coldly, and Yoichi flinched. "This is different. We had no time to trap her, this is too dangerous. The best course of action is to kill."

"But sir—"

Giggles borderlining insanity echoed through the room. Yoichi got a glimpse of metal before his vision was obscured by Guren's back. There was a loud clash of swords; wind rushed past them with the intensity of the blow.

"What are you doing standing there? Go after her!"

Yoichi gulped, but he agreed on one point: he couldn't stay still. He let go of Ayumu, who was in no condition to fight, and retrieved his newly-acquired bow. It materialized in his hand; he promptly drew an arrow.

The demon had lost interest in him after Guren blocked her attack, and now she was fighting with Shiho. His movements were fluid and practiced, but he was clearly on the defensive.

Yoichi got the demon in his sights. With Shiho distracting her it would be easy to hit her, but he hesitated. He noticed Shiho's lips moving, probably with the same chant that he used with Ayumu, so maybe Chiyo would come back to her senses too.

"What are you two doing? Don't play with her, finish this!"

Yoichi's heart beat faster and faster. He could see the strain that holding against her was putting on Shiho. His movements were getting slower, and soon— "Shiho!"

He didn't dodge fast enough and Chiyo's sword grazed his right arm. Shiho hissed in pain, but didn't stop. "Is this all you've got, human? I barely had any fun yet!"

"Are you stupid? Attack her already!"

Yoichi gulped, grip tightening.

Shiho lunged after her, but she met his blow with far more strength than him, sending him tumbling back.

She loomed over Shiho, sword raised. "I win."

Yoichi's breath caught in his throat. He froze.

"Shit." Her sword was halfway to his heart when her own stomach was pierced by Guren's sword.

Yoichi gasped, watching as Chiyo's uniform slowly turned red. "D-damn you." She spit out more blood.

"Go back to where you came from, demon." Guren activated the curse.

She screamed, her body falling to the ground like a rag doll.

"I expected more from you," Guren said to Shiho, but he hardly reacted to the disappointment, gaze fixed on Chiyo instead, who fell right beside him.

"And you." Guren's gaze shifted towards Yoichi, making him all too conscious of the arrow he was still holding. "You had her in your sights; why didn't you shoot?"

Getting the words out of his mouth was a hard task. "But sir, Ayumu came back, what if she—"

"She didn't."

"Y-yes, but maybe if we waited a bit longer, then—"

"Then he would be dead."

The bow disappeared with a burst of flames.

Chiyo lay motionless on the ground, blood pooling under her: the same blood that had splashed on Shiho's shirt and face.

 _The demon raised the sword, blade pointed down, and attacked. It pierced Shiho's chest, cutting cloth and flesh. Blood flowed out of the wound, neverending. He fell back, lying limp on the cold, hard floor. Empty eyes stared back at Yoichi._

Yoichi didn't let go of the arrow.

It could have been Shiho instead.

"If I weren't here to save your asses, that's what would have happened." Yoichi was shaking, the severity of the situation finally catching up to him. "This isn't a game. You all made your choice and you can't go back now. Now you're in the army, and you have to start acting as such, even if it means killing your friend."

Silence stretched on after his words.

Yoichi gulped. "Is she—" _Dead?_

Guren cut him off, completely ignoring him. "And you." Now he was facing Ayumu. "I'll forgive you this once, but there will be no excuses next time."

Pressure started building in Yoichi's head. He had barely begun and he'd already messed up. When did he get so stupidly certain of himself? So naive? He couldn't run on luck alone.

Guren sighed once more. "I hope the three of you understood the lesson; we have no time to hammer it home." Yoichi wondered what he meant by that, but he didn't dare ask. Guren turned back to Shiho, and this time he managed to catch his full attention. "How is your wound?"

"Ah, it's just a shallow cut, nothing to really worry about."

Guren nodded. "Good. Tomorrow you will meet the rest of your squad; I've got a mission for you already."

The three of them exchanged glances; that was pretty soon. Looked like they wouldn't get any slack from then on.

"You two are dismissed," Guren said, looking at Yoichi and Shiho. "You probably should get that checked in the medical wing, Kimizuki."

"I'll go with you," Yoichi said, quickly moving towards Shiho.

The quicker they got out of there, the better; the distraction was welcomed.

"Eh? There's literally no need." Yoichi reached out his hand, but Shiho refused the offer and stood up under his own power.

"Can't I keep you company?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Ha-ha."

As they entered the elevator, Yoichi watched Guren talking to Ayumu.

* * *

" _Ah, Yoichi. You had quite a day. Still sure about your revenge?" His sister, now sitting on the bed, spoke softly._

 _But Yoichi was still his regular self, and outside the window there was nothing but pitch black. This wasn't like the illusion from before; just ordinary taunting._

" _That's a bit mean of you. Will you only show up in that form?" Yoichi spoke lightly, despite his words._

 _The demon snorted. "Would you rather see my true form?"_

" _That would be better, I guess." Yoichi wasn't sure if the demon would actually comply, but it was worth a shot._

 _It turned out the demon did, in fact, change to his regular form. And oh, Yoichi did not see that coming either._

" _Surprised?" The demon's voice was deep, matching his tall and muscular body._

" _You could say that...oh, which reminds me. I didn't ask for your name," he said, no longer shaken by the jarring contrast between the demon's true form and his sister's delicate body._

" _It's Gekkouin."_

" _Pleasure to meet you, Gekkouin," Yoichi said naïvely as he raised his hand._

 _Gekkouin just raised a single eyebrow, giving no sign that he would shake his hand. Yoichi shrugged, dropping his hand. "By the way...I didn't change my mind. I am still going to take revenge, no matter what it takes."_

 _Gekkouin smirked. "Good."_

* * *

"I've never been to this part of the city…" Yoichi mused as he took note of their surroundings. There was nothing special about it, but the further they walked, the more dilapidated and unoccupied the streets became.

"Wouldn't have expected you to. There's only the train to the border here," Shiho answered distractedly as they went down the stairs to said station.

But no matter how mundane it all seemed to Shiho, Yoichi eagerly took in every detail. And the station itself seemed to be in pretty good condition, different from the structures just outside, most likely due to its use.

They waited in silence, but they didn't have to wait for long before Yoichi heard the sound of the incoming train. "Ah, the train is already here, but what about—"

"Wait, I'm coming!" Yoichi turned around, seeing Ayumu come running down the stairs. _Speak of the devil…_

"Ayumu, good morning! You came right on time." Yoichi beamed.

"You idiot, you're late," Shiho reprimanded, earning a sigh from Yoichi.

"Sorry…I overslept," Ayumu said breathlessly as he joined them.

They took their seats on the train. Yoichi observed the interior with some fascination—it had been years since he had last ridden on one, after all—until his gaze fell on Ayumu, who was sitting across from them, eyes trained on the floor. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked a bit pale. "Uh, you don't look very well. Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Ayumu answered distractedly as he turned his attention to Yoichi, not processing the question right away. "Yeah, just didn't sleep very well…but that's fine, nothing major."

"If you say so…" Yoichi wasn't entirely convinced, but didn't press the subject.

The space suddenly became brighter when they left the tunnel and entered an open area. It immediately perked Yoichi's interest, and he turned around to look out the window behind his seat. Out there, a big area of the city remained completely forgotten. "We inhabit such a small area…to think all of this is completely abandoned…"

"Don't go getting all gloomy now," Shiho said, speaking up for the first time since the beginning of the ride.

"Nah, I'm actually pretty excited. That's the way you take on your patrols, right?" View forgotten, Yoichi went back to his previous position, his attention now fully on Shiho, who stared at him funny.

"What about it?"

"I'm finally here too!" Yochi answered, barely containing his excitement. His answer only aggravated the incredulous look on Shiho's face. Yoichi giggled at his reaction. "But the fact that you came here tons of times already is pretty impressive," he finished, this time more contained.

Shiho returned to his usual cold expression, but even as he stood up, Yoichi could see a subtle red tint on his face. "Here, we're arriving."

Just as Yoichi looked out the window, they arrived at another station, and the train slowed to a stop. The gate was right ahead of them, a few soldiers guarding it. They had barely stepped out of the train when one of the soldiers waved.

"Oh, Kimizuki. I heard you got promoted to the Vampire Extermination Unit. Congratulations!"

"Hi, Hashimoto," Shiho answered when they got closer. Yoichi glanced back and forth between the two. "Thanks, I guess."

"You don't sound too excited," Hashimoto said, still sounding quite cheerful.

"It's not that." Shiho shrugged. "I would have stayed in the border patrol. Mirai is stable for now, so I don't have to worry much about getting promoted to receive more benefits."

Yoichi felt a light tug on his sleeve. He found Ayumu—still holding his sleeve—looking at Shiho with furrowed eyebrows.

"I see. Anyway, those two are also in the extermination unit?"

Ayumu had just opened his mouth to ask something, but stopped when attention was directed at the two of them. He let go of Yoichi's sleeve.

"Yeah, they're with me," Shiho said without looking back at them.

"Man, they're recruiting younger people by the day…" Hashimoto's gaze got lost for a moment, but he quickly switched back to his lighthearted self. "Anyway, good luck out there."

"Thank you."

Yoichi nodded at Hashimoto as he passed by him and followed Shiho out of the now-open gate.

"Ah, it's been a while since I've been out here," Yoichi commented, leaning on the railing.

"Come on, Guren is down there," Shiho called, going down the stairs. And sure enough, Guren was at the foot of the stairs along with two girls.

"Uh, who are those two?" Ayumu asked as they descended the steps.

"No idea, but they're a higher rank."

"Are you kidding me? Putting me in a squad full of newbies, and with Shinoa as the leader?!" Yoichi nearly halted his steps, stunned by the sudden—and rather loud—remark from the blonde girl.

Guren, who seemed very inconvenienced, straightened up the moment he noticed the three of them arriving. "Would you look at that. The rest of your squad has arrived."

"So you're the newbies?" The girl whipped around, not looking too bothered by being ignored. "I'm Sanguu Mitsuba."

"H-hi, I'm Saotome Yoichi." Yoichi awkwardly introduced himself, still thrown off by her…strong personality.

"Shishido Ayumu." Contrary to Yoichi, Ayumu didn't seem bothered at all. He still sounded tired actually.

"Kimizuki." _As friendly as always…_ "I've worked on the border patrol for the past year."

Mitsuba's already wrinkled brow creased even further at his last statement. "Huh, is that supposed to be impressive? The Horsemen around the border are nothing. A mile away is when they start to get really dangerous—"

"Aha, don't mind her. She might seem troublesome, but it's actually because she cares." The other girl cut her off, speaking for the first time. The entire time she had this smug look on her face, her teasing tone matching her expression perfectly.

"Who are you calling troublesome?!" Mitsuba shouted once more, prompting a sigh from Guren.

"And I'm Hiiragi Shinoa, your squad leader!" The girl stretched her arms in an over-the-top presentation, still completely unbothered by Mitsuba's rage, clearly directed at her now.

"Right," Guren said, heading off further argument. "Now that you all have introduced yourselves, here's your mission." _Straight to the point…_ "First, go to Harajuku. There's a colony of vampires that hunt humans. Eliminate them all and free the humans. After that, go to Shinjuku."

* * *

"Here we are: Omotesando station," Shinoa said when the station came into view.

It had been almost an hour of walking from the small base a few kilometers from there, but at least they knew where to go. Yoichi wondered how long they would have walked had they not known their destination. "Ah, I'm glad that girl told us where the vampires are; I bet it would have been difficult to find this place with no clues…"

"Indeed! Good thing we rescued her earlier then, right, Mii-chan?"

"Shut up, Shinoa." Mitsuba—who was adamant about not breaking formation to save the little girl running from a Horseman—fumed, and Shinoa only laughed at her reaction. It became more and more apparent that Shinoa loved teasing the other girl, even though Yoichi still wasn't sure just how intimate the two were.

"Right, everyone." Shinoa stopped on the top of the stairs leading to the subway, turning around to face the rest of the squad, this time more serious. "I do believe we can make it, since you all have Black Demons. As long as we don't break formation…" Never mind; of course she wouldn't miss an opportunity to tease Mitsuba, who just huffed and crossed her arms this time. "…we might do it without much trouble. We did a good job earlier against that Horseman, let's keep it up."

Yoichi nodded as they started down the stairs. He was a bit nervous; they would be fighting vampires now, after all. Although, Shinoa seemed pretty positive and Shiho walked confidently beside him, so that was sufficient to appease his worries.

As soon as the lower floor came into view, they noticed several people sitting by the walls, all wearing white uniforms with black accents. Warning bells rang in Yoichi's mind, but after looking around, he didn't see any vampires.

"Why don't they just leave?" Shiho asked, mirroring what Yoichi was thinking.

"The outside is infested with monsters," Shinoa answered. "The vampires are keeping them safe here, in exchange for their blood, of course."

"And what are those uniforms?" Yoichi asked.

To his surprise, the person who answered his question was Ayumu. "It's the livestock clothes."

Before he could inquire further, Shinoa abruptly stopped, motioning everyone to do the same. "There." Yoichi peered around her, examining the shadows. He could make out a form, one that became clear when the figure stepped into the light: a vampire. "Kimizuki, Shishido, you two are our first line of attack."

"Right," Ayumu answered, while Shiho settled on a nod.

"Go, now," Shinoa commanded without taking her eyes off the vampire.

The two sprinted towards the vampire, who took his sweet time reaching for his weapon.

"Yoichi, stay on guard."

"Okay." Yoichi summoned his bow, aiming straight at the vampire.

Shiho was the first to attack, but the vampire blocked him easily enough. While they had their swords crossed, Ayumu aimed at his side, but the vampire side-stepped. This gave Shiho the opportunity to attack him again, this time managing to wound the vampire, and with that Ayumu made the final blow.

"One down," Ayumu said, relieved, even though he seemed strangely out of breath.

Yoichi was about to lower his guard when Shiho suddenly shouted: "Watch out!"

Another vampire came into view. Yoichi took a sharp intake of breath, and before he knew it he had let go of the arrow. He missed. But at least it served as enough distraction to allow Shiho to attack him, killing the vampire with a single blow.

"…Thank you." Ayumu rubbed the back of his head.

"Just pay more attention next time."

"Hm…he doesn't look very friendly," Mitsuba commented—ironically enough, but alas—and Yoichi had the urge to defend him, even though it was true.

"Ah, he's actually really nice, when you get to know him better."

"Alright, let's keep going." Shinoa ended the conversation, and so they went ahead to meet the other two. They continued walking until they reached another open area. There, the rest of the vampires approached them.

Mitsuba and Shinoa summoned their weapons, and Yoichi followed their lead. "Let's go!" Mitsuba exclaimed, but just as they were about to move, a loud crashing sound came from behind them. There were a few mirror panels behind them, now completely shattered and revealing more vampires hiding behind them.

"What…?" Mitsuba mumbled, unaware of the vampire moving straight at her.

"Ah!" Yoichi couldn't even form words to warn her, but at least he had enough presence of mind to shoot him. And oh, he did get it right this time.

The vampire bent in on himself, the arrow stuck in his stomach. Mitsuba, now on full alert, lashed at him with her axe, turning him into a cloud of ashes. "Everyone, regroup!"

They moved closer together, back to back and weapons in hand. "That's more vampires than we were expecting…" Ayumu said.

"Ha, and who exactly told you that?" a vampire said, seeming quite pleased despite the death of another one of his companions. They still outnumbered them, however.

"You used a kid for…" Mitsuba murmured, and the situation finally clicked in Yoichi's head.

"Humans are truly vile, don't you think?" the vampire continued. "They betray their own kind to protect someone important to them."

"So what?" Shiho spoke up, to Yoichi's surprise. "I don't care if that girl lied; we're still going to take care of you." But that statement didn't seem to diminish the vampire's amusement at all. He really wasn't taking them seriously.

"Exactly. Everyone seems to have second-class weapons; this shouldn't be hard," Shinoa reassured them. Yoichi tightened his grip on his bow.

"Even though we still have lower numbers?" Yoichi couldn't help but ask.

"Yes," she answered firmly, and Yoichi pushed aside his nervousness. "So what do you say, Mii-chan?"

"…Let's exterminate those vampires."

* * *

"Everyone, today we did a good job accomplishing our first mission. This calls for a celebration!" Shinoa said, ever so cheerful...contrasting with the overall mood.

"And why exactly are we camping?" Shiho said, his scowl deeper than usual.

They all sat in a semblance of a circle around the fire. They set up camp in a clearing not far from the base. Although begrudgingly, they all somehow rolled with Shinoa's antics, lighting the fire and moving some logs. Shinoa and Mitsuba sat together, Yoichi and Shiho sitting across them, while Ayumu sat on their right, all the bags tossed beside him.

"Couldn't we have stayed in the base?" Shiho pressed.

"No, what's the fun in that? I even smuggled something from the stock!" Shinoa reached for her backpack and retrieved a crumpled bag stuffed to the brim with puffy white marshmallows.

"Ah, marshmallows?" That perked Yoichi's interest, but his question earned a glare from Shiho. "Ha…"

"After all the fighting from today, how do you still have so much energy?" Mitsuba asked as she glanced sideways at Shinoa. "Aren't you a bit too excited?"

"How would I not be excited? My first day as a squad leader was nothing short of a success!" Mitsuba huffed, but even though Shinoa seemed more smug than was warranted, there was something endearing about her joy.

An especially chilly breeze blew through the clearing, making Yoichi shudder. It could get really cold out there at night. He reached his hands out to the crackling fire, blowing on his palms and rubbing them together.

"So, it's your first time leading a squad?" Ayumu interjected.

Before Shinoa had the chance to say anything, Mitsuba cut in. "It's her first time actually _in_ a squad."

 _Wait...what?_

"What?" Shiho spluttered, drawing the attention of the two girls, who had been oblivious to their squadmates' shock. "If it's your first time in a squad, how the hell are you a sergeant?"

"Well, it's not that I don't have any field experience, even though I'm indeed more in the 'backstage'—"

"Also, she's a Hiiragi, and the Hiiragi command the army," Mitsuba finished, less heated than before.

"Eh, also that," Shinoa shamelessly agreed.

"Huh, didn't see that coming...what about you? Don't you have a high rank too?" This time Ayumu directed the question to Mitsuba.

Perhaps out of a desire for payback, Shinoa was the one to answer for her. "Mii-chan is also from a important family!"

Her comment caused Mitsuba's anger to flare up once more. "Yeah, but unlike you, I've been in another squad before."

"Why did you change squads then?" Yoichi asked, but he immediately regretted it when Mitsuba's expression turned blank.

"Because…" She trailed off, giving no sign she intended to continue; the atmosphere suddenly became heavy.

"...Anyway, marshmallows, anyone?" Shinoa spoke up, nearly as joyful as before, and Yoichi cringed at the abrupt shift of mood. Although, it was probably for the best…

"I do," Ayumu said, and Shinoa passed the bag of marshmallows to him.

"I want one too," Yoichi said, contributing to the change of subject, especially since it was his fault Mitsuba was uncomfortable.

They passed the marshmallows around and Shinoa gave everyone a skewer so they could roast the marshmallows on the fire. It was only after all of this had been sorted out that the conversation resumed.

"Anyway, Shinoa, if your family is that important, why are you even in the field? If you put it that way, isn't sargeant a low position?" Shiho asked.

Shinoa finished eating her marshmallow. "Well, yeah, but I have no interest in the surrounding politics. I want to be as far away from the power dispute as I can."

"...So you entered the army just because you felt like it?"

Shinoa shrugged at Ayumu's comment. "I've been in the middle of this mess since the beginning, but if you put that way...then, I guess."

The disbelief of the three boys was apparent. Mitsuba, on the other hand, seemed indifferent. "Shinoa does what she wants, and she can be very annoying in the process."

"That's a very funny way to pronounce 'amazing'—"

"Shut up. Anyway, as I was saying, Shinoa could very well have stayed out of it, but instead she decided to meddle with what _we_ are supposed to do."

"So mean! If you keep saying those things, I'll end up thinking you don't like my presence—"

"Wait, hold on a second. What are you two talking about?" Ayumu interjected—oh, his marshmallow was starting to get really crispy.

"What do you mean?" Mitsuba asked, turning her attention to Ayumu, only to look away to send another glare at Shinoa, who was currently staring intently at her with her default smug expression.

"What did you mean by, uh, what is that 'you' are supposed to do?" Mitsuba squinted at his question, and while she thought, Ayumu stared at her expectantly, continuing to ignore the burning marshmallow—

Ayumu eyed him briefly when Yoichi pulled his torched treat away from the fire.

"Oh, that," Mitsuba finally responded. "Ah, it's kind of complicated, but—well, to put it simply, the branch families of the Hiiragi Clan, especially the ones directly under them, are expected to follow them...and right now we are doing that by entering the army."

"So you didn't have a choice then?" Ayumu reached for the bag, having decided that his marshmallow wasn't edible anymore.

"Not if I didn't want to be a bigger disappointment—" Mitsuba spoke without hesitation, but abruptly cut herself off, seamingly realizing what she just said. "...Not that I wouldn't have entered anyway. But, whatever." She sat up straight, as if nothing had happened. "So, you guys didn't have any of this sort of pressure—what brought you to the army then?"

"Oh are you really going there?" Shinoa said as she stood up to retrieve the bag. Her eyes didn't leave Mitsuba, who crossed her arms in response.

"What? Didn't I share enough of my personal life already?"

"That's fair, I guess," Shiho said, surprising Yoichi. Noticing his questioning look, Shiho just shrugged, returning his attention to the others. "I'm here for my sister. She's sick, and as long as I'm fighting, the army will cover all her medical bills."

"So that's Mirai…" Ayumu muttered.

"That's really nice of you," Shinoa said, but her tone lacked her usual mirth, becoming soft instead.

"Isn't it?" Yoichi agreed. He really admired that about Shiho, and he had made sure that he knew it.

"Don't start." And there came the typical snappy response.

Yoichi snickered at his annoyance. "But it's true! That's a really good reason." Shiho, who was ignoring him, glared at Yoichi after that last part. Yoichi couldn't help but smile at the reaction. "Not that mine isn't, but it certainly is more petty."

"You? Petty?" Mitsuba asked with a single raised eyebrow.

Shinoa nodded. "Sorry, Yoichi, but I spent the day hunting vampires with you and you struck me as a real sweetheart."

"That's...flattering, haha." Yoichi knew people usually thought he was...soft, but no one had ever worded it like that before. "But no, it truly is petty."

"How so?" Ayumu asked, curious, and Yoichi realized that he had never told him this story either.

"Well...two years ago the vampires came to my colony…" He paused, and even though everyone had an idea of what had happened by now, he thought about how he would say it. "My sister—the only one I had left—she told me to hide under the bed. And I watched as she was killed by a vampire…I...I managed to escape and come here, and ever since I promised that I would avenge her."

As he spoke the last part, Yoichi could feel Shiho's eyes on him, and he knew why: because Shiho knew the entire story.

But he wasn't bothered; he knew Shiho would understand his decision to keep quiet about that part.

"Did the army rescue you?" Ayumu asked, and Yoichi furrowed his brows.

"No, I stayed hidden until the vampires left, and then ran. It was pure luck that I went in the right direction. Why?"

"Nothing, just...my story is a bit similar."

"Oh?" Yoichi asked, curious.

Ayumu seemed a bit awkward, averting his eyes from him. "Ah, not by much though…" But even though he brushed it off, he still continued. "The only one I had left was my older brother, too...but our colony was getting really short on food and medicine, and a lot of people had died by the time the vampires got there, including my brother. But unlike your case"—he glanced at Yoichi—"they kept us there. I guess that was a good thing, 'cause a couple of weeks later the army showed up and freed us."

"I see…" So Ayumu went through a similar struggle to Yoichi's, but the way he lost his brother wasn't the same.

Yoichi took the bag, plucking the last marshmallow from its depths.

"Alright, everyone." Shinoa stood up, breaking the short-lived silence. "It's starting to get late and we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

"We're going to Shinjuku tomorrow, right?" Shiho asked.

Shinoa nodded. "Yes. We received reports that the vampires from the Kansai area intend to take back Shinjuku. And so they're sending everyone there; the regular battalions must already be stationed there."

"And that's why we're waking up early tomorrow," Mitsuba added, standing up as well.

"Mm-hm. Let's clean up this mess and go to sleep."

There wasn't much to clean up, so they made a quick work of putting away the skewers and taking out the sleeping bags.

"Good night, Shiho."

Shiho looked up from the fire—he was adding more wood to keep it going for a few hours longer. "Good night."

Yoichi walked up to his sleeping bag, catching a glimpse of movement in the process. Looking in that direction, he was relieved to see it was just Ayumu. He wondered why he was so far away, though. And so Yoichi approached him.

It was dark away from the firelight, but as he got close he could make out the form of a water canteen in his hand. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Ayumu practically jumped in place, and as he turned around, Yoichi noticed the pill in his other hand. "What's this?"

Ayumu looked down at the direction he was staring at. "Ah, this...it's something Guren gave me. He said it would help me deal with the demon, since the contract didn't go all that smoothly…"

Yoichi knitted his brow together, but nodded nonetheless, not pressing any further.

Ayumu seemed awkward for a moment before taking the pill.

"So…" Ayumu spoke up once it was done. "I didn't know about your sister…"

"Yeah. I could say the same though, about your brother…" Yoichi trailed off, thinking it would be inappropriate to ask. But whether or not that was true, curiosity got the best of him. "By the way...you never actually said why you entered the army…"

It wasn't phrased as a question, but he made it ambiguous, giving the other the opportunity to dismiss it if he wanted. Ayumu didn't look that bothered, though.

"Ah, yeah...I'm not quite sure how to explain it….Well, you see—ah, it's going to be kind of long."

"I don't mind hearing, that is, if you don't mind—"

"No, it's fine." Ayumu shrugged off his concerns. "Anyway...I came to Shibuya around four years ago. I was pretty pissed at the time and didn't want to talk to anyone. I even picked a fight with another boy and punched him. A day after that, though, Yamanaka came to me, asking if I wanted to join his little group." He paused, taking another sip of water. "I found out that Yamanaka and Yuiji were two of the few that used to live in Shibuya before and had never been outside the border; they got it easier. Besides, if they talked to me after I went to the principal because of a fight, they probably weren't the best company around...but I didn't care about that at the time, I just rolled with it.

I guess I was that desperate for company...but yeah, as the years went by I realized how stupid Yamanaka was, and the life that I had there started to feel really...meaningless. The incident with you was the last straw, seeing how persistent you were to do something." Ayumu sighed. "Sometimes I felt like I could try to do something more, but I never put much thought into it until the thing with Yuiji happened. Guren came to talk to me in the hospital, asking if I wanted to enter the army, and I don't know, I just agreed."

Yoichi blinked. He didn't expect that Ayumu had met Guren then, but it made sense. "So that's how it is...well, I think you're doing a good thing then."

Ayumu sent him a surprised glance. "You think?"

"Yeah! I think trying to make a difference is good. You didn't have to enter the army per se, but if it turns out to be what's...fulfilling, then yeah, it's good!"

Yoichi knew what he was talking about, this feeling of fulfillment. He wondered if he were a hypocrite, though..

Was it good, what he was doing?

Was he selfish to his core or were his reasons greater than just himself?

Did it really matter?

At the very back of his mind, he could hear an amused laugh.

"Thanks," Ayumu said, sincere.

"No problem!" Yoichi promptly answered, a smile on his face.

The others were already asleep when they came back.

* * *

It was still dark when Crowley reached the agreed meeting place, even though the sun would soon be rising.

The moment the human noticed him, his frown deepened and he reached for his sword. "I'm here on behalf of Ferid Bathory," Crowley announced.

The human relaxed, but his hand still loomed over the weapon, only leaving it when Crowley handed him the letter that Ferid had given him.

He read the contents fast; perhaps Ferid had indeed been quite brief. "So I'm finally getting it. I was starting to think that he had forgotten."

"Ferid likes to take his time crafting his plans."

"He took too long," the human grumbled. It really wasn't true, though. There were things that Ferid started executing only recently that he had been planning for centuries already. But of course, Crowley refrained from correcting him. "In fact, in the meantime, I started an experiment of mine."

"Oh?" Crowley prompted, only mildly interested.

He nodded. "Yes. And since it seems that I won't be able to make it to the front lines today, please tell Ferid to send me the results later."

Crowley raised a single brow. The human was bolder than he had expected, but he didn't mind. If anything, he bet that Ferid would appreciate the little show.

"Will do." Taking it as the end of the conversation, he left.

* * *

"That's amazing, Shiho," Yoichi said as he looked out the car's window, the view passing by almost in a blur. "I didn't know you knew how to drive."

"One of the older kids taught me." Yoichi looked back at Shiho, but his eyes were glued on the path ahead. "It was hard to move with Mirai, and I knew it would come in handy if we had to run someday."

His face was as impassive as always, as if the memory—of having the other kids turning against him and trying to kill his sister because it would be a mouth less to feed—did not invoke any pain. Perhaps it didn't; Shiho was a very practical person, after all.

That's another quality of his that Yoichi admired: how he wouldn't waste time thinking or getting attached to impractical things. Mirai was truly the only thing he wouldn't let go.

"Shinjuku's entrance is just ahead…" Shiho trailed off, earning a confused glance from Yoichi.

"What is it?" Yoichi turned away from the side window, eyes falling on a car coming the opposite direction.

"Isn't it an official car?" Shiho answered.

"It looks like it," Shinoa said from the back seat. "Why are they coming from Shinjuku?"

"Should we stop?" Mitsuba asked, facing Shinoa.

Ayumu, not having anything to add, leaned back, perhaps in an attempt to make himself invisible between the two girls.

"Maybe. Kimizuki, please."

"Okay." He did so and Shinoa lowered the car's window, waving at the other car.

As soon as they got near, the other car stopped beside them, lowering its window as well. "Ah, you're from the army too. It was hard to tell from the car."

"Ah, yes," Shinoa said, "we were on another mission and took the car to come here faster...which begs the question: why are you leaving Shinjuku? Did something happen?"

The soldier's expression became somber. "We were just notified that a group of vampires invaded Shibuya."

Yoichi's eyes widened, the rest of the squad showing similar degrees of surprise. "Shibuya as well? Is this a double attack?" Shinoa asked, level-headed.

"We are not sure how many vampires; the information we received was quite vague. We tried to gather as many people as we could to go back, since the majority of the army is here, but things are chaotic in there, so it's just us coming."

A single car? There couldn't be more than a dozen people in there. "But that's too few; what if the vampires there outnumber us?" Shinoa seemed to have the same thought. "We are from the Vampire Extermination Unit, maybe we could help—"

"Shinoa," Mitsuba cut her off. "Guren ordered us to go to Shinjuku, we can't simply disregard his orders."

"Did you say Guren?" the soldier said, drawing everyone's attention once more.

"Yes. Do you have news from him?"

He shook his head. "Not really. But I saw his squad earlier—they must be on the front lines right now—and they said that they hadn't heard anything from him since yesterday, even though he was supposed to be there today as well."

"Do you think it has something to do with the attack on Shibuya?" Yoichi wondered out loud. Shiho shrugged, frowning.

"I'll go as well then, that rest can stay." Shinoa suddenly spoke up, surprising everyone.

"Really?" the soldier said. "That would be of great help."

"Wait, hold on a second. You can't just go," Mitsuba said, and Yoichi was inclined to agree.

Shinoa turned around to face her and Ayumu shrunk even further on his seat. "This wasn't in the plan, the situation is different now. Maybe something bad happened there."

"In that case, I'm going with you." At that, Shinoa's eyes widened. Yoichi didn't expect that Mitsuba would jump to that so quickly either.

Then Shinoa shook off her surprise, expression once more serious. "No, you're the most experienced one here, you have to lead them in my absence."

"I'm not letting you go alone!" she said without hesitating. Shinoa sighed.

"Alright, then I'm taking...Kimizuki."

Yoichi blinked and shared a glance with Shiho, who seemed equally surprised.

Mitsuba looked like she wanted to protest, but after a moment of silence, she huffed, crossing her arms. "Fine."

"Is that alright with you, Kimizuki?"

"We practically arrived already, so the others can walk the rest of the way. There shouldn't be a problem."

Shinoa nodded. "Let's go, then. We can't waste any more time."

Bonus: as everyone gets out of the car, Shinoa turns to Mitsu, asking if she will be ok, and Mitsu get really mad and yells that yeah, if Shinoa can do it, then of course she can handle a couple of newbies. Shinoa is 0.0 but then a tiny smile forms on her lips and she says "ok, I'm counting on you." She turns around, but Mitsu grabs her wrist. Shinoa is once more confused. Mitsu says, softly, "take care." Shinoa says "you too." Meanwhile, Yoichi simply tells Kimi good luck. Kimi nods, saying "be careful." And as Mitsu, Yoichi and Ayumu turn to walk the rest of the way, Kimi stares at them (Yoichi) for a moment longer, although short, before getting inside the car.


End file.
